The FCC will delay submitting its highly anticipated National Broadband Plan report to Congress by one month, reports Reuters.
The report (pdf), a framework to promote affordable high-speed Internet access and use among Americans, is due to be submitted to Congress on Feb. 17, as mandated by President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus package.
“In order to ensure that there is sufficient time to more fully brief commissioners and key members of Congress, to get additional input from stakeholders and to fully digest the exhaustive record before the agency, the chairman has requested from congressional leaders a short extension of four weeks in order to deliver the final plan,” Colin Crowell, senior counselor to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, said in a statement.
Rebecca Arbogast, an analyst with Stifel Nicolaus, said the delay has little impact on the markets and instead might help smooth the implementation of the plan down the road.
The FCC is slated to meet on Jan. 20 to discuss several items including an update on the broadband plan. It’s not clear yet if the FCC’s five commissioners will vote to approve the plan or if it will simply be sent to Congress from Genachowski’s office, says the Wall Street Journal. Other FCC commissioners have voiced qualified support for some broad ideas in the plan, but have said they need to see specifics.
“Speed matters,” Genachowski said on Wednesday when asked during an interview with GigaOM, whether the FCC wants to promote a “meaningful” definition of broadband, even if it means less profits for the providers.
“I can’t tell you that we’ve figured out the solution completely and I can’t tell you that we’ll figure out the solution to this perfectly by the time we do the National Broadband Plan,” he told GigaOM. “This is really hard.”
Genachowski has said the plan will include recommendations to reform the $7 billion Universal Service Fund, which is paid by a telephone tax to help low-income and rural communities maintain access to telephone service.
He wants to lower payments and instead refocus it to help Americans access broadband services as more consumers move away from traditional phones and subscribe to mobile handsets.
In submissions filed with the FCC last year, the biggest broadband providers, including AT&T, Verizon Communications and Comcast argued for minimum speeds that were substantially below many other nations.
