The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the FCC has taken the initiative to improve broadband Internet access across America.
The Federal Communications Commission began to lay the groundwork for a bigger federal role in the broadband business Wednesday, outlining the hurdles the U.S. needs to overcome to improve the availability of high-speed Internet access.
The FCC identified a number of issues the government should address, including the high cost of laying new broadband lines in rural areas, a lack of airwaves for wireless Web access and ill-informed consumers.
"This focus on broadband is a reflection of a recognition that the U.S. is lagging behind," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said Wednesday at the agency's monthly meeting.
While this move is certainly good news for those of us living way out in the "country" in this day and time, with this administration, we will have to keep a close watch on the details, you know, camel's nose under the tent and all that.
One of the issues is that while broadband access is growing, there ARE still people being left behind. That is what HR 3101 is trying to improve, by ensuring that videos on the internet through the news, etc. are captioned for the deaf and hard of hearing. That's an overly simplified explanation of this bill, but it IS an important issue that people tend to forget. With the ranks of those who depend on the internet for access to news after normal news hours, etc., this is very important, since they can't listen to the radio for breaking news during times of natural disasters, and so forth. I'm hoping that this issue is addressed forthwith.
Posted by: Eddie | November 19, 2009 at 07:22 PM