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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
Related articles:
White space: Dell to make laptops; Google downright giddy
Comcast offering WiMAX high-speed wireless broadband
FCC unanimously approves unlicensed white-space devices
Comments
Posted by Anonymous | July 21, 2009 - 11:14pm
On the surface fiber deployment to every library, school, community health care center and public housing facility in the US sounds admirable. But what happens when it's cheaper to relocate the facility rather than lay the fiber?
Incentives for providers to install multiple lines of fiber as new networks are rolled out is really getting at a different problem. The cost of the fiber is already cheaper that the cost of laying it. These incentives already exist if one can predict the needed capacity. The issue that needs to be resolved is who owns the rights to the bandwidth. So far, it's the company who payed for installing it.
Fewer usage restrictions on white space wireless spectrum would seem to give more airwave capacity, but doesn't. Most restrictions are designed to manage harmful interference and make the airwaves useful for important new and unplanned services. Removing restrictions will create noise and frequency management chaos that will actually reduce the effectiveness of the air space for all and choke currently effective services.
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