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The Federal Communications Commission yesterday asked for comment on how broadband should be defined under the National Broadband Plan. Somewhat ironically, the FCC (News - Alert) officially issued this question in a public notice on the same day the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the Rural Utilities Service closed the application process for the first round of broadband stimulus funding.

 

Then again, the fact that the FCC is still seeking to get a better handle on how to define broadband shouldn’t come as a surprise. Back in April, the FCC came out with a notice of inquiry in which it asks questions about and seeks input on a wide range of communications issues – from how the government can leverage or should retool existing communications regulations to how it can best address security, education, civic participation, health care and energy independence using broadband tools and services. One of the front-and-center questions the NOI sought comment on was how to define broadband.

 

The definition for broadband under the notice of funds availability document that the NTIA and RUS issued back in July relative to the first round of broadband stimulus funds defines broadband as a service providing two-way data transmission with advertised speeds of at least 768 kbps downstream and at least 200 kbps upstream to end users, and sufficient capacity in the middle mile to support the provision of said services. No surprise there, as this is consistent with how the FCC has defined broadband for other efforts for some time.

 

But while the rules around the broadband stimulus funds could vary during the three application phases, the National Broadband Plan – due next February – is a document the Obama administration and the FCC hope to be a beginning blueprint for the country and that lays out the details of what broadband is, what currently works relative to broadband regulation, how to fix the stuff that needs fixing, how to expand broadband to the greatest number of citizens, and how some of the country’s core initiatives can benefit from all of this. So, not surprisingly, the FCC is trying to get a more detailed definition of broadband for the National Broadband Plan.

 

Sure, this National Broadband Plan definition is likely to address speeds. More than that, however, regulators are asking whether “broadband” should be based on the consumer’s ability to access sufficiently robust data for certain identifiable broadband services rather than purely on defined data rates. They also want to know what parameters should be looked at relative to connectivity, and if performance metrics relative to broadband should apply only for the local access links or for the end-to- end connections.

 

So, although asking for a definition on broadband at the same time the government is readying to hand out broadband stimulus funds is certainly a cart-before-the-horse proposition, it’s good news that the government is actually making a concerted effort to ask and answer these questions in enough detail that such definitions are somewhat meaningful.