- 4chan hell raisers finding fame brings heat?
- The 10 dumbest mistakes network managers make
- NetApp quits bidding war in face of EMC opposition
- CompuServe closes after 30 years
- Google to launch open-source Chrome OS this year
Broadband has been deemed the FCC top priority, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said at Microsoft offices in Mountain View, Calif., on Thursday.
Appearing at a meeting of the Churchill Club, Martin touched on subjects ranging from broadband and the upcoming sale of frequencies in the 700MHz spectrum. He also delved into ideas on how to make cable TV more affordable and help spread digital TV.
Martin emphasized wireless broadband as a way to spread Internet access.
"I think broadband is the number one priority for the commission and the additional deployment of it," said Martin. Broadband technology can drive economic growth and impacts areas such as health care delivery and education, he said. The FCC has done work to try to foster additional infrastructure investment and some increased competition in broadband, he said.
The upcoming auction of wireless spectrum in the 700MHz band presents an opportunity for wireless technology to be a third broadband pipe beyond just DSL and cable Internet, Martin said.
"The 700MHz auction is a piece of spectrum that we're reclaiming because of the analog-to-digital transition for television, and that spectrum has the capability of delivering significant amounts of data and information at relatively low power," Martin said.
The FCC in bolstering broadband wants to ensure that network operators do not become the gatekeepers of innovation in the consumer space, he said.
Responding to a moderator's charge that the United States ranks 15th among industrial countries in broadband deployment, Martin said there are demographic challenges, such as having a population that is spread out. Martin said other countries have more densely populated areas that make it easier for them to hook up a larger segment of their populations.
The FCC wants to have multiple wireless providers and make sure wireless is not just a complementary service offered by one of the existing providers, Martin said. Also, the commission has imposed strict build-out requirements to make sure that the spectrum is not acquired and then kept unused as an anticompetitive measure, he said.
A portion of the spectrum also is being reserved for wireless broadband for public safety purposes, such as enabling police communications, said Martin.
The Leader in Network Knowledge
Comment