FCC BEGINS INQUIRIES ON BROADBAND DATA AND DEPLOYMENT
Washington, D.C. – The Federal Communications Commission today announces two
proceedings focused on evaluating broadband deployment.
The first is a Notice of Inquiry (NOI) under Section 706 of the
Telecommunications Act
of 1996 into whether broadband services are being deployed to all
Americans in a reasonable and
timely fashion. The second is a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM)
exploring ways to
collect information the Commission needs to set broadband policy in the
future.
Both actions recognize the critical importance of broadband services to
the nation’s
present and future prosperity.
The NOI is the fifth such inquiry conducted by the Commission under
Section 706 of the
Telecommunications Act of 1996, which requires the Commission to
determine whether
broadband services are being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable
and timely fashion.
Among the questions the Commission asks in the NOI is how to define
broadband in light of the
rapid technological changes occurring in the marketplace, including the
development of higher
speed services and new broadband platforms. The Commission will also
focus on the
availability of broadband, including in rural and other hard-to-serve
areas; on whether consumers
are adopting new services; and on the level of competition in the
marketplace. The Commission
asks what can be done to accelerate the rollout of broadband services,
and seeks comment on
current investment trends in the industry. The Commission also seeks
comment on external data
sources that shed light on broadband prices and the extent to which
consumers have a choice of
competing providers of broadband service in the United States, ideally
on a house-by-house and
business-by-business basis, as well as comparable data on speed, price,
availability, and adoption
in other countries.
The NPRM seeks comment on whether to modify collection of speed tier
information and
how to improve the data collected about wireless broadband Internet
access service. The NPRM
also asks how the Commission can best collect information about
subscribership to
interconnected voice over Internet Protocol service, or VoIP. Finally,
the NPRM also seeks
comment on how the Commission can develop a more accurate picture of
current broadband
deployment (including by extrapolating from more accurate estimates of
representative urban,
metropolitan, exurban, low-income, tribal, and rural areas), as well as
gather information on
price, other factors that affect consumer uptake of broadband services,
and international
comparisons.
Action by the Commission, March 12, 2007, by Notice of Inquiry (FCC
07-21) and
February 26, 2007, by Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FCC 07-17).
Dockets: 07-45 (NOI); 07-38 (NPRM).
Wireline Competition Bureau Staff Contact for NOI: Jeremy Miller at
202-418-1507,
[EMAIL PROTECTED]; for NPRM: Ellen Burton at 202-418-0958,
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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