The ambitious broadband plan aims to extend high-speed broadband to the 93 million Americans who lack high-speed broadband at home, and to boost broadband download speeds to 100 Mbs for 100 million US broadband households — about 20 times faster than current average US broadband speeds.
The plan also aims to lower broadband prices and improve customer service (a bug bear for US broadband customers, just as it is for UK broadband customers), through policies that boost competition among broadband providers.
The plan, which experts believe would pay for itself through the sale of wireless spectrum, would spend $6.5 billion on a new public safety broadband network dedicated to emergency first responders. And at least one building in every community, such as a school or a government building, would have a super-fast broadband connection with broadband speeds of at least 1 Gigabit per second (commonly known as an ultra-fast broadband connection).
Just as there is concern in the UK – there is concern in the US that it is lagging behind many international competitors in broadband access. One key study ranks the country 15th in the proportion of people who have broadband, and not much better in broadband speed.
The ambitious US broadband plans illustrate the urgency of agreement on the UK’s own super-fast broadband future. Labour and the Tories are arguing as to the best way to accelerate the roll-out of super-fast, fibre-optic broadband in the UK. Labour preferring the broadband tax option to fund the roll-out and the Tories preferring a private sector broadband led approach.
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