FCC Aim to Boost Web Still Remote

Web surfers frustrated at paying high prices for relatively slow broadband service won't get much short-term relief from the Federal Communications Commission's effort to make U.S. Internet service faster and cheaper.

The FCC report suggests that 100 million U.S. homes—of a total 112 million—should have "affordable access" to 50 megabit per second Internet service in five years. That's about 10 times faster than most homes get today. But the plan doesn't define affordable. Nor does it offer a specific recipe for its aim. The FCC says it will ultimately propose dozens of new rule changes to enact some of the ideas in the report. Even the FCC's suggestion of a free or low-cost national wireless broadband service could be years away from reality. The agency proposed a similar free wireless network two years ago but the plan withered under industry opposition.