The FCC National Broadband Plan: Long Haul Expected

As part of its National Broadband Plan the federal government wants broadcasters to relinquish and let the government sell excess airwaves, which could then be used by wireless carriers to deliver mobile-Web access. Opposition from the National Association of Broadcasters is just one of the hurdles the government must clear as it presses ahead with a plan to bring broadband access to almost 100 million U.S. residents.

For starters, the plan is just that. Federal Communications Commission officials, under Chairman Julius Genachowski, will present the proposal to Congress, which will weigh in as the FCC embarks on a years-long process of implementing the various proposals. "The really difficult policy options are going to be made in follow-through actions," says Paul Glenchur, senior analyst at Potomac Research Group. Along the way, the FCC may face resistance from lawmakers unwilling to approve additional funding and from parts of the communications industry, such as satellite providers, largely left out of the plan. "If it were easy, [this reform] would have been done a long time ago," Blair Levin, the Federal Communications Commission official who's spearheading the National Broadband Plan, said. To pay for the plan, the government will rely largely on auctions of airwaves to wireless carriers. Yet the plan will call on Congress to approve spending $12 billion to $16 billion over 10 years to construct the wireless public safety network. That may not sit well with some lawmakers.