Ask the PropellerHeads

I’m working on a column now covering the FCC’s proposed National Broadband Plan.

The geek in me is excited that high-speed Internet access might one day be as ubiquitous as electricity and the dial tone.  But the free marketer in me who complains every time I get a package two weeks late from the post office isn’t thrilled about the fed’ral gubmint being the ones to make it happen. 

I mean, sure, it’s great to think that I don’t have to give up my super-speedy mp3 downloads if I decide to move twenty miles down the road into Horse Country, Tennessee.  But do the feds really need to oversee the market for set-top cable boxes?  Okay, so technically in that case they’re just sticking it to the cable companies so that the cable companies can’t stick it to me. 

But I still don’t like my taxes paying for federal agencies to adopt Facebook and other “social media platforms for [...] collaboration.”  How do I know they’re not just playing Farmville?  Don’t I already subsidize enough real, actual farms as it is?

This should at least be optional, like that $3 contribution I can volunteer to pay into the Presidential Election Campaign Fund when I file my taxes (who does that?!).  I propose a new question to be posed by all tax software and the good folks at H&R Block:  Do you want $3 of your federal tax to go to the Congressional Mafia Wars Fund?  Problem solved — you’re welcome!

In any event, I came across several good articles while researching the column:

• FCC National Broadband Plan:  What It Means For You – From PC Magazine, this article has a good overview of the broad range of topics covered by the plan, including its recommendations on upgrading infrastructure, how access to health records will be affected, the benefits for educational institutions, and what it means for openness in government and improvements in voting procedures.
• Do You Want to Pay a “National Broadband Fee?” - From the same author, who discusses how the FCC plans to pay for the increased adoption of broadband and improvements to emergency first responder networks, among other aspects of the plan.
• FCC:  35% of Americans Lack Broadband - PC Magazine again, same author (Chloe Albanesius), explaining the FCC’s study and survey of “non-adopters,” people who don’t currently have broadband.
• FCC to Propose National Digital Literacy Corps - Wherein young-uns the country over will teach their elderly neighbors how to find Lady Gaga videos on YouTube.  Or something like that.
• FCC Unveils National Broadband Plan - CNET’s coverage, including the origins of the plan (in last year’s stimulus package), costs involved, and other topics mentioned above.
• Broadband.gov - This is the official site, from the FCC.  Here you’ll find the complete text — some 400 pages or so — of the plan, as well as an executive summary, the list of goals, action items, and links to PDF downloads.

I should also mention that one goal of the plan is to eventually get everyone hooked up with download speeds of 100 megabits per second, making it the only government document I’ve read to elicit the response holy frijoles!  If you’re curious about how that compares to your current download speed, test yours now at SpeedTest.Net.

Okay, time to go check the mail — I’m expecting a very important package that should’ve been here around last month.

Tags: broadband, fcc, national broadband plan

This entry was posted on Friday, April 16th, 2010 at 3:09 am and is filed under Articles in the works, Tech News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.