Broadband is jumping in the U.S., with 42 percent more broadband connections at the end of 2003 than the end of 2002 and most serving residences and small businesses, the Federal Communications Commission announced June 9. At the same time, the regulatory body announced new rules for promoting wireless broadband while protecting incumbent educational services.
High-speed lines tying homes and businesses to the Internet rose 20 percent in the second half of 2003 (28.2 million lines, up from 23.5 million), compared to an 18 percent rise in the first half of the year (23.5 million lines, up from 19.9 million), the FCC said, while 26 million of the total 28.2 million broadband lines in 2003 service served homes and small business, and overall such service rose 50 percent over 2002.
The FCC said broadband connections by way of asymmetric digital subscriber lines (ADSL) rose 47 percent (to 7.7 million lines, up from 6.5 million) by the end of 2003, while cable modem broadband connections rose 45 percent (to 16.4 million lines, up from 11.4 million) by the year's end. Advance services lines (over 200 kbps both ways) rose 39 percent from the end of 2002 to the end of 2003.
Meanwhile, the FCC's new rules to promote wireless broadband include a new plan for 2495-2690 MHz, which the body said would "eliminate the use of interleaved channels by [multipoint distribution service] and [instructional television fixed service] licensees, and create distinct band segments for high power operations, such as one-way video transmission and low power operations, such as two-way fixed and mobile broadband applications."
Putting the high- and low-power users into separate portions of the band, the FCC said, would cut the likelihood of "interference caused by incompatible uses and create incentives for the development of low-power, cellularized broadband operations, which were inhibited by the prior band plan."
The commission renamed the MDS as the Broadband Radio Service, while keeping the ITFS label for ITFS licenses and operations.
"We are witnessing the dawn of a new era for wireless broadband," said FCC chairman Michael K. Powell, announcing the new rules, in a formal statement. "Today's decision does away with heavy-handed rules that have governed [wireless broadband] for far too long." He said educational institutions now "freed from regulatory shackles" would be able to use broadband in the ways they saw most advantageous to their students and the public alike.
FCC commissioner Kevin J. Martin said the new rules would save the ability of users to use traditional video and other services while promoting broadband significantly, while giving a big boost to consumers. "I am optimistic," he said in his own statement, "that this spectrum will provide a home for last-mile broadband applications, providing competition to telephone and cable lines. In the end, consumers will benefit from innovative services and lower prices."
Commissioner Kathleen Q. Abernathy noted the new rules answered a proposal from the MDS and ITFS industries that the old regulations be overhauled, and said the FCC wanted to guarantee those services wouldn't be throttled by outdated and excessively restrictive regulations. And she said such services as a third broadband pipe to the home, a mobile solution, and a broadcast alternative or other such alternatives that would be market-driven, would be able to breathe and not suffocate under heavy regulation.
"While we have not adopted the industry proposal in total, we have used it as a solid basis for many of the rule changes we adopt today," she said. "These new policies will promote greater flexibility for the newly named Broadband Radio Service licensees so that they can deploy new products… this order grants the educational community the same flexibility as commercial users in order to ensure that our nation's educators have access to the most innovative technologies and services."
