FCC Broadband Plan May Call for Expanded Higher-Ed Leadership Role
The Federal Communications Commission will release the country's first national broadband plan Tuesday—a landmark blueprint for universal high-speed Internet access that will be eagerly pored over in some parts of academe.
"If we’re right, the FCC report will call for a new role of leadership for higher education in this whole area of broadband," said Gary Bachula, vice president for external relations at Internet2, the high-speed networking consortium for colleges and universities.
In a news release previewing the 360-page document, the FCC said on Monday that one of its goals was affordable access to ultra-high-speed broadband at "anchor institutions" like schools and hospitals. Mr. Bachula, who has joined other higher-education networking leaders in trying to shape the plan, expects that the full FCC document will declare that "there is evidence that the commercial marketplace has been unable to meet that need."
The question for higher education is what course the FCC sets for how the country will achieve its anchor-institution connectivity goals. Mr. Bachula said there is a "high expectation" that the FCC will call for a national high-speed network that connects all anchor institutions to each other and to the Internet, one that could be built on the
