National Broadband Plan moves at dial-up speed

One year after the Federal Communications Commission released its National Broadband Plan, more than half of the recommendations have yet to be implemented as the legacy of FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski -- as well as the success of President Barack Obama’s broadband promises -- hangs in the balance.

The 300-page plan’s bold vision for the nation’s broadband agenda has largely taken a backseat to the net neutrality debate at both the FCC and on Capitol Hill. Some 40 percent of the plan’s 218 recommendations are in progress, the Benton Foundation estimates, and nearly 10 percent of the recommendations have been completed. Thirty-four percent of the recommendations have not yet been touched.

Among the goals not completed:

• An ambitious goal to create a nationwide public safety network so first responders can communicate more effectively
• Reform an $8 billion fund to subsidize the expansion of broadband services in rural, low-income and hard to reach areas
• Establish a standard for a universal device to deliver all sorts of TV content through the Internet

To be clear, not all of the recommendations outlined in the plan could be acted on solely by the FCC. Some require legislation from Congress and others are directed to separate federal agencies. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, an arm of the Commerce Department that advises the President, shares or owns responsibility for much of the plan’s agenda. But the scrutiny has been especially pointed this year, as debate over net neutrality has prompted some Republicans to question the agency’s authority over the Internet writ large. That’s meant there has been less time to focus on other elements of the broadband plan, many of which are not controversial, from moving ahead at the agency and on Capitol Hill.