EMFA: T2E1 - FCC Chief on Bandwidth and 706 - Kennard

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Theme:  Universal Internet - Essay 1
Author: William E. Kennard, Chairman FCC
E-mail: fccinfo@fcc.gov


Bandwidth and Section 706 of the Telecommunication Act of 1996

One of the most exciting things the FCC will be doing this year
is conducting a review required by section 706 of the 1996
Telecommunications Act, which is intended to promote the
deployment of advanced telecommunications infrastructure to all
Americans. With the explosion of Internet and data traffic that
is occurring, it has become apparent that new types of networks
need to be built over the next several years to handle data
traffic more efficiently.  We need more bandwidth to carry this
traffic.

I believe that bandwidth is like computing power -- you can
never have too much of it.  And each of our communications
mediums -- the telephone network, the cable network, terrestrial
and satellite wireless networks, and television and radio
broadcast stations -- are increasingly going to become different
high speed delivery methods for the bits to travel our country.

Today, the communications industry is deploying broadband
technologies to meet the growth in demand for faster
communications services.  From the Internet to digital cable to
digital television, all communications are becoming bits.  Bits
that can be voice, video, audio, data or more.  Bits that can be
massaged, processed, and manipulated to allow telephone calls to
begin in English and end in Spanish.  Bits that can revolutionize
the way our children learn in school, in libraries after school,
and at home.

But those bits do little good if they can't reach us.  So as
communications become bits, an important focus of communications
policy must be to ensure that our country has the bandwidth to
transport the bits.  

Residential consumers, schools, libraries, rural health care
facilities, and small businesses often must struggle with the
bandwidth limitations of the dialup network.  In a variety of
respects, broadband capability is not available to most
Americans.  We must find ways to bridge the digital divide.  A
recent survey, for example, found that whites were more than
twice as likely as African Americans to have used the World Wide
Web in the previous week.  Almost 60% of white high school and
college students have used the Web in the past six months -- but
only 30% of African-American students can say the same.  Our goal
should be to promote development of a broadband network that does
not separate us into a nation of information haves and have-nots.

How do we do this?  First, we need to learn more.  We need to
make sure all lanes of the Information Highway are able to
deliver high-speed capabilities.  We must understand what
obstacles exist, particularly in rural and inner-city
communities.  The Commission will examine both questions more
closely as we implement Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act
later this year.  

Our goal is to promote the deployment of broadband services to
all Americans, including rural consumers, who might otherwise be
left behind their urban counterparts in the receipt of such
services, and students, who need access to such services in their
classrooms to prepare for the technological demands of the 21st
century.  We must continue to promote the deployment of bandwidth
in a procompetitive manner consistent with our historical
national commitment to universal service.  


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