The FCC presented a $24 billion plan to Congress today to provide high-speed broadband Internet to every American man, woman and child.

In the report, the FCC conclusdes: "Broadband is a critical prerequisite, though, to solutions to many of America’s problems. It can open up ways
for American innovators and entrepreneurs to reassert U.S. leadership in some areas and extend it in others. It can unlock doors of opportunity long closed by geography, income and race. It can enable education beyond the classroom, health care beyond the clinic and participation beyond the
town square.

"In 1938, President Roosevelt travelled to Gordon Military College in Barnesville, Georgia, to speak at the dedication of a local utility. `Electricity is a modern necessity of life, not a luxury,' the President told the audience, `That necessity ought to be found in every village, in every home and on every farm in every part of the wide United States.'

"He added, `Six years ago, in 1932, there was such talk about the more widespread and the cheaper use of electricity.' But words did not matter until the country, `educed that talk to practical results.'

"Broadband, too, is a modern necessity of life, not a luxury. It ought to be found in every village, in every home and on every farm in every part of the United States. There has long been talk of the widespread and affordable
use of broadband. This plan is a transition from simple chatter to the difficult but achievable reality of implementation. It is a call to action for governments, businesses and non-profits to replace rhetoric with targeted, challenging actions. It is time again to reduce talk to practical results."

The story is here:

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/62850

The FCC downloadable report may be found here:

http://www.c-span.org/

Having repeated the oft-used phrase about how small expenditures add up to big ones, in this case I believe it's an expenditure that should be made.

The internet is an important element of what can make our economy more competitive. Installing the infrastructure to make such access available to more people and businesses is almost certainly more efficiently and quickly accomplished with one countrywide effort than relying on a hodge-podge of various levels of government and/or competing sources in the private sector to accomplish over an unspecified longer period of time. Almost certainly, large parts of the country would be by-passed by reliance on local public/private efforts because of an inadequate number of potential users or insufficient local funding to pay for it.

The proposed project will amount to .00686% of the federal budget. It seems to me that at that price it's a bargain.

PAYGO applicable ?

Great I want free internet, free tv, free radios, free newspapers, and free magazines. This will really make our country more competitive.

I really love all the free stuff Liberals use to get votes.

Bucco, Paygo? I dunno. I doubt it. Part of the funding, a small part, was already written into the stimulus plan. There are suggestions of auctioning spectrums, something a techie would understand. I think, if it is adopted into law, we will see an increase in our telephone bills. There is an article discussing the issue in PC World if you're interested.

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscente...ats_in_it.html

When we moved to North Carolina about a year ago, I saw a public service announcement on television about free cell phones and free monthly minutes for people who qualified for certain government assistance. I was appalled and shocked. Of course, it is touted as something that is needed for elderly and poor so they can call 911.

Cashman - it's not free internet. It's like telephone and electric service. You should be ABLE to CHOOSE to purchase the service no matter where you live.

My mom lives in VERY rural Indiana. Can't afford much. She's on dialup because there's no broadband out there. She'd like the CHOICE to at least get a form of DSL out there. She's not asking anyone to subsidize her service - she's quite conservative. But if we could subsidize AVAILABILITY of phone and electric to rural areas in the 20th Century, why can't we do the same for telecommunications in the 21st?