Federal internet regulators wants your help coming up with the first ever, national broadband plan — which they must deliver to Congress next February. At stake are billions of dollars in government funds, the nation's standing in world broadband rankings, the digital divides between rich-and-poor and town-and-country, and perhaps even the future of the U.S. economy.
President Barack Obama has called for the United States to become a leader again in internet access -- now that the nation pitifully trails Europe, Japan and Korea in both speed and affordability. Earlier this year, Congress allocated $7.4 billion for rural broadband projects as part of the stimulus package. And while telecoms and towns are fighting for some of that money, that's likely to be only a small fraction of what will be spent, once the government has a plan on how to make net access in the States better, faster, cheaper and more competitive.
In anticipation of those federal dollars, hundreds of citizens, companies, industry associations and community groups have already let the FCC know what they think the nation's plan ought to be, and Wired.com readers join them today. (Comments are due by the end of the day Monday. Instructions on how to submit your own comments are at the end of the post.)
In April, Wired.com readers submitted hundreds of suggestions and voted on them through our Reddit voting widget. Editors have taken the most popular and the most insightful proposals (.pdf) and are submitting them Monday as part of the official FCC record.
And let's hope the regulators actually reads its official comment section, because Wired.com readers are asking them to be bold.
For instance, many readers support a model where the internet's pipes aren't owned by ISPs anymore. They'd rather multiple companies be able rent the shared lines and compete on service, a model that has worked in Britain. Australia uses a version of that model to build a national fiber and wireless network that will serve all Australia.
Or, as one anonymous submitter put it: "Internet cables/routers are 'infrastructure,' and no company should be allowed to control them more tightly than we would allow a company to control our roads, electricity, water, sewage, etc. The internet is not an entertainment service."
And the word fiber, as in fiber optic cables, proved popular with readers.
GWC thought there might be a way to punish the nation's telecoms into providing faster service, suggesting the country ought to "force every telecom executive to use a 1200 BAUD modem until everyone in the country is upgraded to Korean standards."
One anonymous commenter charged the FCC with being too cozy with the telecoms and says the FCC needs to be cleaned up.
"A simple rule excluding anyone from employment at the FCC and a rule forbidding any FCC employee from working for those they are charged with policing would be a good start. If they want to prosecute, they should let us know where we can dump evidence. I know I am not the only one with a collection of email backups."
Another asked that the frontier not be forgotten — and that there are still pockets of the country without even copper-line phone service.
"I, and my neighbors, live in one such area in the mountains of West Texas. We cannot call the ambulance, the sheriff, our families. An easy solution to our service situation would be a mesh of wireless broadband and VOIP. I believe it is very important to identify areas that have no service whatsoever and at least put some effort into basic telco services."
Even those closer in than the dry hills of Texas say rural America needs broadband help, including one reader who labeled his suggestion "Two Miles from WalMart -- 44,480 Miles to Broadband," lamenting how he could hear U.S. 101 but has to get broadband through a satellite connection.
Others argued that cities that want to lay their own broadband should be allowed to do so, and the nation's incumbent telecoms need to stop fighting them at the ballot box and in court:
"We need to stop giving these companies this freedom to stop or delay buildouts of municipal fiber networks. If I had enough money to fund UTOPIA in Salt Lake, I'd jump on it in a heartbeat but I know that I would be facing at least a 2 or 3 year battle in courts with Qwest and Comcast.... If they're not going to take us on the path to true broadband access then these companies should step aside!"
Have your own idea?
You can submit your own comments directly to the FCC can do so at this page. You'll need to enter "09-51" as the proceeding number and you can then either upload a text file, a PDF, or a Word document. Alternatively you can enter brief comments through the text field at the bottom of the page.
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