The Federal Communication Commission outlined a plan on Monday that will help bring broadband solutions to the far reaches of the country.
Speaking at the Third Way in Washington, D.C., FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski (News - Alert) announced his intention to retool the Universal Service Fund’s Lifeline program, a 20-year-old initiative that has helped millions of low-income Americans afford basic telephone service. Genachowski's goal is to expand the program to include broadband.
The proposed modernization of Lifeline should help bring high-speed Internet access to Americans who either can't afford it or who live in areas where it isn't offered due to certain fiscal barriers. Genachowski noted that broadband has gone from being "a luxury to a necessity in the 21st century," yet one-third of Americans have still yet to adopt it at home.
Broadband solutions are "essential for finding a job, for example, as job postings have moved online, and for landing a job, as companies increasingly require basic digital skills," he added. "This is an opportunity to take another major step forward in our efforts to modernize our programs for the digital age, and to make them efficient and fiscally responsible."
The initiative is scheduled to kick off later in 2012 under a Broadband Adoption Pilot Program, which will evaluate how Lifeline can best be positioned to encourage broadband adoption in remote and low-income areas. Applications from broadband providers that wish to take part in the initiative will be solicited in the coming months.
The effort will be made possible by recent savings reforms, including the prevention of waste, fraud and abuse. Genachowski acknowledged that Lifeline has been a victim of fraud for many years, but said that the elimination of various loopholes has saved the fund around $250 million.
To further this effort, Genachowski also announced the creation of the National Lifeline Accountability Database, which will ensure that program subscribers are unable to receive support from multiple carriers.
The FCC (News - Alert) will also establish national eligibility criteria for the program and conduct audits every two years on ISPs whose support exceeds a predetermined threshold.
Broadband providers like Actelis (News - Alert) Networks are well aware of the growing demand for broadband, particularly in underserved areas. The company addresses these issues head on with its broadband Ethernet services over existing copper networks.
Actelis provides Ethernet access devices, Ethernet aggregation switches, Broadband Accelerators (BBAs), and the industry’s only deployed spectrally-compliant EFM repeaters to deliver up to 20 times the bandwidth with legacy copper solutions to commercial and particularly rural areas.
Beecher Tuttle is a TMCnet contributor. He has extensive experience writing and editing for print publications and online news websites. He has specialized in a variety of industries, including health care technology, politics and education. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by Stefanie Mosca