Georgia Reps on the National Broadband Plan and Small Business

On February 16, 2010, Reps Nathan Deal (R-GA) and Phil Gingrey (R-GA) wrote a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski to share a proposal written by Jim Geiger concerning the National Broadband Plan.

The proposal would allow telecom innovators to gain access to the bandwidth necessary to push efficiency-enhancing, cloud-based applications to small businesses, applications such as virtualized desktops, hosted digital image and file management, high-resolution video conferencing, broadcast/live video streaming, robust data protection, cloud-based backup, and sophisticated video security systems. These advanced applications would lower start-up costs for small businesses and enable them to implement their business plans, innovate and create jobs. At the same time, the incumbent local exchange carriers would sell more bandwidth at the same prices as they sell to any other customer.

On May 12, Chairman Genachowski wrote back to Rep Gingrey (Mr Deal had already resigned from Congress) noting that Geiger's company, Cbeyond, had submitted his proposal to the FCC in the form of a Petition for Rulemaking. While the Plan did not male a decision on that Petition the FCC does plan to review its whole ale competition policies.