WASHINGTON, March 10, 2010 – Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan on Tuesday compared broadband expansion in the United States to the development of the interstate highway system under President Eisenhower, speaking at the Knight Center for Digital Inclusion.

Also speaking at the event was Federal Communications Commissioner Chairman Julius Genachowski, who addressed the various impacts of broadband on the wider economy and the need for expansion in order to spur innovation. Genachowski also commented on the fact that the United States has fallen behind on key metrics; once number two globally, the United States has fallen to a distant 15 in connectivity.

Washington, February 26, 2010 – The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission this week previewed his agency’s spectrum recommendations in the FCC’s upcoming national broadband plan to be presented to Congress next month.
In Julius Genachowski’s statement titled “America’s 2020 Vision for Mobile Broadband,” he established that “no area of the broadband ecosystem holds more promise [...]

WASHINGTON, January 21, 2010 – The Federal Communications Commission in a Tuesday workshop explored consumer choice, user control of their online experience and the importance of transparency.

The agency’s fourth Open Internet Workshop on Consumers, Transparency and the Open Internet focused on the sixth principle of network neutrality – transparency.

WASHINGTON, December 18, 2009 – The Federal Communications Commission has appointed Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Meredith Attwell Baker to serve on the federal-state boards for universal service and jurisdictional separations. Clyburn will serve as federal chair of both panels. FCC Commissioner Michael Copps will continue to serve on both boards.

The Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service was established by the Telecommunications Act of 1996 to implement universal service provisions and to make recommendations on universal service matters. The Federal-State Joint Board on Jurisdictional Separations advises the FCC on the apportionment of regulated costs between interstate and intrastate jurisdictions.

WASHINGTON, December 17, 2009 – The Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday laid out a rough draft of its national broadband plan after weighing through 66,000 pages of written comments, 27 public notices, 100 items posted on its “blogband” web site, and 700 blog comment posted to the record.

But the agency says it is still difficult to answer key questions that must be addressed within two months time, or by February 17, 2010.

WASHINGTON, December 16, 2009 – Web content producers applauded the efforts of the Federal Communications Commission to turn Net neutrality principles into enforceable rules – but lawyers, academics and commissioners were divided on whether the agency should begin regulating the internet in the name of democracy and economic growth.

“The genius of the Internet is its openness, its dynamism and its availability to one and all,” said FCC Commissioner Michael Copps in his opening statements at a Tuesday afternoon workshop on “Democratic Engagement and the Open Internet.”

December 15, 2009 – The value of universal access to broadband was discussed at an occasionally tense Federal Communications Commission field hearing in Memphis on Monday night. The hearing was intended to focus on whether broadband services are being deployed in a way that allows all Americans to benefit, though it also addressed why internet access is necessary.

“I believe that universal access to broadband needs to be seen as a civil right,” said FCC commissioner Mignon Clyburn. “I don’t think you can look at it in any other way.”

WASHINGTON, December 11, 2009 – The FCC’s forthcoming national broadband strategy must include steps to improve services to Native Americans, FCC Commissioner Michael Copps told attendees Thursday while delivering the keynote at the Practicing Law Institute’s Telecommunications Policy and Regulatory Institute.

WASHINGTON, November 9, 2009 – Panelists at a Federal Communications Commission field hearing on Friday agreed that there should be a national broadband plan that made high-speed internet connections accessible to everyone, including those with hearing, visual and other disabilities. “A national broadband plan is not national if not accessible to everyone,” said Michael Richert, director of public policy for the American Foundation for the Blind.

As part of its preparation for the national broadband plan, the Federal Communications Commission will hold another hearing on the topic of disabilities at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. The college is geared toward the deaf and hard of hearing.