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House Subcommittee Chair worries more Americans lack broadband than previously thought

During its first hearing on the National Broadband Plan, U.S. House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet Chairman Rick Boucher expressed concern over one of the findings of the FCC's plan, arguing that more Americans than currently thought lack broadband service.

The National Broadband Plan reports that 95 percent of Americans have access to fixed broadband infrastructure, leaving 7 million homes, or about 14 million Americans, unserved.

Chairman Rick Boucher (VA-9) said that the standard the FCC used to compute minimum broadband availability assumes that cable and DSL operators have deployed minimum download speeds of 4 megabits per second throughout their service area.

In Boucher's home state of Virginia, for example, the assumption that all customers within a service area can actually obtain service might not be true.

The difference between the National Broadband Plan's figures and the number of Americans actually served might be significant:

I appreciate that [the FCC] will clarify in its testimony that the 95 percent figure is intended to be an estimate of homes that should have access to broadband based on what is estimated about where incumbent providers have deployed infrastructure. It does not mean that someone in an area the Broadband Plan predicts would have broadband service could pick up the phone, call his provider and get service.

FCC Chair of Wireline Competition Sharon Gillett cautioned that just because a housing unit can be served does not mean it is served. As a result, the actual number of Americans who cannot purchase broadband is likely higher than 14 million.

David Villano, Assistant Administrator of the Rural Utilities Services, also submitted a written statement on the upcoming announcement of Community Connect grants. The monetary awards range anywhere from $50,000 up to a maximum of $1,000,000, and have been made possible with funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Applicants for the grant must provide matching funds equal to 15 percent of the requested grant amount, serve a rural area where broadband service does not exist, and deploy basic broadband service free of charge for 2 years to critical community facilities.

These Community Connect grants supplement the much larger programs available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The ARRA made $7.2 billion available from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration program, the Broadband Technology Opportunity Program (BTOP) and the RUS grants, which will provide over stimulus funding for high-speed Internet service expansion in unserved areas.

National Broadband Plan: Deploying Quality Broadband Services to the Last Mile (Committee on Energy and Commerce)

Statement of Congressman Rick Boucher (Committee on Energy and Commerce)

National Broadband Plan — Chapter 9 (Broadband.gov)

Written statement of RUS Assistant Administrator David Villano (Committee on Energy and Commerce)

Broadband stimulus funding raises concerns (Speedmatters)