Billion Dollar Expenditure for Broadband Proposed for 2012

The Federal Communications Commission could make up to a billion dollars or more available to telecom carriers beginning next year to encourage them to expand high-speed Internet connectivity to rural areas that lack service.

The money would be made available from savings achieved through the agency's proposed extensive overhaul of the $8 billion federal universal service fund. The fund now subsidizes phone service in low-income and rural areas, but the FCC wants to redirect the money to promote broadband deployment and adoption, and cut waste and inefficiency in the process. On Feb 8, all five FCC regulators approved a tentative version of Chairman Julius Genachowski's proposed changes for universal service. Buried within the 289-page text of the proposal, released Feb 9, are details of the recommended expenditures, which the document describes as a "one-time infusion of support." To dole out the money, the FCC would conduct so-called reverse auctions that would award funds to companies willing to agree to build high-speed infrastructure at the lowest costs. The auctions would be held in 2012 and possibly 2014. To guide its decisions on where the money should be spent, the commission would rely on the National Broadband Map to be released by the Commerce Department on Feb. 17.