Google aims to help FCC craft national broadband plan

Google is aiming to help the Federal Communications Commission craft plans for a national broadband network by the February 2010 deadline called for in the economic stimulus Recovery Act package. The FCC has asked for civic engagement in the process, and Google is answering the call.  

On the company's official blog, Google said it has teamed up with the New America Foundation to launch a Google Moderator page that allows visitors to submit and vote on ideas they believe the commission should include in its national broadband plan. "Two weeks from now we'll take the most popular and most innovative ideas and submit them to the official record at the FCC on your behalf," wrote Richard Whitt, Google's Washington Telecom and Media Counsel. "

The search giant is already advocating its own view of how broadband can be improved:

• fiber deployment to every library, school, community health care center and public housing facility in the US;
• incentives for providers to install multiple lines of fiber as new networks are rolled out
• fewer usage restrictions on white space wireless spectrum

For more:
- see Unstrung [1]

Related articles:
White space: Dell to make laptops; Google downright giddy [2]
Comcast offering WiMAX high-speed wireless broadband [3]
FCC unanimously approves unlicensed white-space devices [4]