Here Comes the Broadband

March 13, 2010, 12:10 p.m.

The FCC's "National Broadband Plan" is so big . . .
(brought to you by FromDC2Iowa.blogspot.com*)
[And see, Nicholas Johnson, "Dear FCC Chair Genachowski: An Open Letter," March 21, 2010.]

"How big is it?" I hear you shout back, like an audience member in Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show" of old.

It is so big that I'll wager in December of this year it will still be thought of as the biggest telecommunications event of 2010.

So big that its coming has loomed over the related work in which I participated during the last three months in Des Moines (planning broadband for Iowa) and Washington, D.C. (reforming the FCC).

It is so big that the FCC has had to create an entire new Web site for it in addition to its old fcc.gov. It's called, of course, www.broadband.gov.

That site reminds us this morning that it's only "4 Days to the Plan" -- March 17, when it will be rolled out in all its glory.

But the New York Times has beat the agency to the punch. Brian Stelter and Jenna Wortham, "F.C.C. Plan to Widen Internet Access in U.S. Sets Up Battle," New York Times, March 13, 2010, p. A1, outlines some of the plan's major features.

Based on that report, I'm pleased to see that many of the concerns I've been writing about seem to have been addressed and proposals adopted.

See, e.g., Nicholas Johnson, "The Broadband Challenge: Consumer Protection in a Deregulated Digital Age," February 2010.

I'll be writing more about these issues during the days preceding the March 17 unveiling, and beyond. Meanwhile, these links should be enough to get you started -- that is, if you're interested in the biggest story of the year.
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* Why do I put this blog ID at the top of the entry, when you know full well what blog you're reading? Because there are a number of Internet sites that, for whatever reason, simply take the blog entries of others and reproduce them as their own without crediting the source. I don't mind the flattering attention, but would appreciate acknowledgment as the source -- even if I have to embed it myself.
-- Nicholas Johnson
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