A House hearing led by Democrat Ed Markey took on the FCC in defining broadband at 200 kbps. Comparing that standard to 50 mbps in Japan for household makes our broadband policy laughable. Markey would like to see the standard raised to 2 mbps. Others think think the baseline should be low enough to include most of the wireless networks. As noted here earlier the FCC is finally looking at their broadband standards, but so far nothing much has come out about it. Continued pressure from Congress can only help.
The article also covers comments from Brian Mefford, CEO of ConnectKentucky a project that has been doing a great job covering the state with broadband, including rural areas. ConnectKentucky is being looked at as a reference point for our own regional broadband effort.
Thanks, Laura. That’s a great resource. (I edited your comment to make the link work).
There is a lot more information on Connect Kentucky and other policy initiatives at SpeedMatters.org. There’s a NYS Broadband Bill that has some really good sections to it that is discussed on the site. Also, another speaker at the same hearing was Communications Workers of America President, Larry Cohen, who had a lot to say about why American broadband policy is so backward and needs to be reformed.