Thursday, October 1, 2009

Broadband Extension Costs Estimated Up To $350 Billion

How broad is broadband communication? That's the question the FCC must answer by February 17, 2010, the deadline for it to report on the cost of extending broadband service to every American household, enacted in the stimulus legislation. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski announced to reporters yesterday that providing all underved households only the bandwidth required for e-mail and web surfing would likely cost $20 billion, while expanding service to include high definition movie transmission and video conferencing would cost as much as $350 billion.

Present statistics show that 4% of the population has no access to internet service, while 33% choose not to pay for the service, and 63% are already subscribers. Whether the FCC chooses the low end, the high end, or some middle ground in the range of its estimates, there will be a lot of cash in this program for construction businesses.
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