One of the things the FCC does is work to ensure that every American has access to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) for telephone communications.
The FCC considers it a basic right for all Americans. But what about broadband? It seems like the Internet is important enough now that legislators are starting to see it as a basic right too.
Actually, it’s not a novel idea. In July 2010, the government of Finland made it a legal right in that country. Granted, Finland has one of the highest Internet penetration rates of any nation, with 83% of Finns having Internet access (78% of Americans do). And Finland was also the first country to make broadband a legal right.
But it shows where we’re headed. The Finns hope to give everyone in their country a 100Mbps connection by 2015, according to the BBC. (Of course, there are only 5 or so million Finns, but still…it’s progressive thinking.)
Yesterday the FCC overhauled its $4.5 billion Universal Service Fund to help bring broadband to rural areas. The key target areas are American Indian tribal lands, the Appalachians, the Mississippi Delta and Alaska, particularly native Alaskan villages.
According to CBSNews, there are about 9.2 million American households (about 26 million people) without access to wired broadband services. Obviously, the FCC is working to help those households.
Of course, not everyone is a fan of this overhaul…
For one thing, the changes will raise rates for all landlines by as little as 15 cents or as much as 50 cents per month, depending on whom you ask (the FCC is on the low end—no surprise).
Also, some people question why the FCC only gave $500 million of the $4.5 billion to mobile broadband, which runs counter to the goal of universal broadband across America.
“Wireless is the most efficient and timely deployment option to meet that goal,” Eric Graham of C Spire Wireless told PCWorld. “Yet the FCC’s inability to untether itself from the wireline monopoly model of the last century deals a tragic blow to our nation’s competitiveness at home and abroad.”
For us in the IVR industry, the rate hike on landlines alone could have a big effect. Fifteen or fifty cents a month may not be a big deal for families, but it could be big for companies with call centers and high volumes of calls every month.
Anyway, it looks as though the U.S. is heading the way of Finland. However we get there, it makes sense to me—broadband is our present and future, so there’s no sense waiting on it.
