FCC Announces 100-Squared Initiative

FCC chairman Julius Genachowski has made it clear in the past that he see’s a need for universal broadband. In his remarks at the NARUC conference (PDF) yesterday, Genachowski offered even more specific thoughts on the subject, the mention of a ‘100-Squared’ initiative probably being the most interesting. The plan would be to bring 100 mbps bandwidth to 100 million households across the US.

Limitations of current networks and technologies make 100 mbps an aggresive goal for wide-spread access in the US. To gain this level of access currently, consumers require access to DOCSIS 3.0 cable internet or a fiber network like Verizon’s FiOS service. The fact that these technologies aren’t widely available, along with the fact that end-user speeds vary greatly depending on where they are implemented is what makes this a truly aggressive goal.

In a related statement, Genachowski also touted Google’s plans for a gigabit fiber network as the sort of innovation that needs to be focussed on. This is just another example of the FCC publicly releasing more information about their US broadband adoption goals as we near the official announcement of the FCC’s National Broadband Plan, which is due to be presented next month.

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