OPTIMIZED SYSTEMS

Updated FCC Plan to Improve Rural Broadband Access

Rebecca Kutzer-Rice | Date: 11-01-11 | Comments

A major rerouting of over $4 billion will bring an immense push for deploying broadband and mobile services in rural areas. The plan should bring modern technology to the estimated 18 million Americans without reliable broadband access.

The Federal Communications Commission recently unanimously voted to redirect funds previously allocated to bring phone service to rural areas. The money, a maximum of $4.5 billion over six years, will now be used to expand mobile telephone and broadband services in these areas.

Termed the �Connect America Fund,� the project outlines several goals including advancing voice service; bringing modern networks to homes, businesses and community organizations; and minimizing rates for broadband service.

In October, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski announced the �Connect America Fund,� which will focus especially on new mobile technologies.

�We are taking a system designed for the Alexander Graham Bell era of rotary telephones and modernizing it for the era of Steve Jobs and the Internet future he imagined,� said FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski.

The project also aims to reduce the service contribution burden on consumers, businesses and organizations.

�By constraining the growth of existing programs, today�s reforms will also minimize the burden those programs place on all consumers, keeping hundreds of millions of dollars in consumers� pockets over the next several years,� Genachowski explained. �Our overhaul of the inter-carrier compensation system will gradually eliminate the billions of dollars in hidden subsidies currently paid by consumers across the country through their wireless and long-distance phone bills. Our staff estimates that the consumer benefits of ICC reform will be more than $2 billion annually. Consumers will get more value for their money and less waste.�

A $1 billion Mobility Fund is also a part of the project. This sub-fund would bring ongoing support to mobile broadband in rural areas.

The Connect America Fund would begin in 2012 by bringing broadband to hundreds of thousands of rural customers and eventually to the 18 million without access to broadband today. According to Genachowski, the plan will build over 100,00 miles of broadband throughout the country.

While the project will improve many aspects of life for rural Americans, it is particularly promising for IT businesses, which would be able to buy inexpensive rural real estate for server farms and other purposes.