FCC sets next Tuesday for broadband plan debut

After a flurry of debate and delays, the FCC's long-awaited National Broadband Plan will finally debut next Tuesday, a day before it is actually due to Congress in an open commission meeting. Now set to be presented to Congress on March 17, the FCC's Broadband Plan was pushed back from its original February due date to March.

Already, the FCC has been revealing various elements of the plan. Among them are FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski's ambitious 100 squared proposal to bring 100 Mbps bandwidth capabilities to 100 million homes by 2020. Interestingly, the FCC's proposal follows Google's announcement of a 1 Gbps open access community fiber experiment.

Perhaps the most controversial element to leak out about the broadband plan is a proposal to shift the focus of the Universal Service Fund from voice to helping to provide incentives for broadband service deployments. A reformed USF plan would include a new Connect America fund and a mobility fund.

FierceTelecom will join sister publication FierceWireless in covering the FCC's Broadband Plan when it debuts on Tuesday. Stay tuned for ongoing coverage.  

For more:
- Connected Planet has this article

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