The Broadband Gap

[Commentary] Since it started measuring in 1999, the Federal Communications Commission invariably concluded that the spread of broadband service was progressing just fine. In 2008, it said more than 99 percent of Americans lived in areas that had access to high-speed Internet networks. But in a report issued last month, the FCC estimated that 14 million to 24 million Americans -- 5 percent to 8 percent of the population -- still have no access to broadband from their homes. And it suggested that private companies are unlikely to serve these relatively unprofitable households. It is true that Internet penetration has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years, but the FCC must fill the gap. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 orders it "to accelerate deployment of such capability by removing barriers to infrastructure investment and by promoting competition in the telecommunications market." The FCC's strategy, published in March, lays out ways to do this. It is working on rules to redeploy the Universal Service Fund, created to bring telephone to hard-to-reach places. And it proposes to reallocate telecommunications spectrum from broadcast TV to mobile broadband service. To enable this, the House and Senate should pass without delay bills that would allow the FCC to auction spectrum to telecommunications carriers and use the proceeds to compensate broadcasters.