Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Intel, Qualcomm and a trade group supporting the move to a smart electric grid were among the first industry voices to come out in support of a U.S. national plan for broadband service released online Tuesday by the Federal Communications Commission.
The FCC plan lays out six broad goals including a target that "every American should be able to use broadband to track and manage their real-time energy consumption."
"We think the policies in this plan should serve to accelerate the development of a smarter grid," said Katherine Hamilton, president of the GridWise Alliance, an ad hoc coalition of 125 organizations promoting the smart grid.
"The plan provides support for a vigorously competitive market for home area networking products and services, all of which will benefit the consumer," Hamilton said. "In addition, it recognizes a host of different communication modes to connect a wide variety of data points without specifying one particular path, she added.
Top computer and wireless companies including Intel and Qualcomm were also quick to praise the new plan. Specifically Intel applauded the plan's calls to free an additional 500 MHz of spectrum for wireless broadband over the next 10 years and transition the Universal Service Fund to fund broadband service.
Intel chief executive Paul Otellini called the plan "meaningful and ambitious" and said it could "harness the social and economic opportunities of the digital age."
Qualcomm also cited the plan's call to make more spectrum available in a statement supporting the FCC's strategy.
Not all voices were positive. The Competitive Enterprise Institute, a free market lobby group said the plan would give the FCC too much power. "Unfortunately, the Commission's plan seeks new realms to rule even as the very need for regulation evaporates, said group telecom policy analyst Wayne Crews.
Among its other goals, the FCC plan calls for 100 million U.S. homes to get affordable access to actual download speeds of at least 100 Mbits/second and actual upload speeds of at least 50 Mbits/s. In addition, every community should have affordable access to at least 1 Gbits/s broadband service to anchor institutions such as schools, hospitals and government buildings.
The plan also calls for the creation of a national broadband wireless network for first responders.
In a recent online debate, representatives of Cisco Systems, Google and the Media Access Project expressed their opinions on what should be in the plan prior to its release.
By: DocMemory
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