Official FCC Blog

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Imagine for a moment what your life would be like without a phone, corded or wireless. How would you contact emergency services if there was a fire or a serious injury? How would you contact a potential new employer, or keep in touch with a current one? How would you contact your utility company about a power outage, or a doctor about your sick child? How would you keep in touch with your loved ones and your community?; In this day and age, telecommunications services are a real necessity, and not being able to afford them is a real liability.

Since the creation of the Lifeline benefit program in 1984, millions of low-income Americans have depended on it to make basic telecommunications services affordable to them. Without this program, countless households would be deprived of contact with health care providers and government services, access to work opportunities, and communications with family and their communities.; As more and more essential functions and services of our economy and our public sectors shift to wireless and online formats, the Lifeline program has been reformed to help low-income Americans overcome obstacles to Internet access and wireless communications. As part of this effort, the FCC has adopted an express goal for the program of ensuring availability of broadband for all low-income Americans, allowing Lifeline support for bundled services plans combining voice and broadband or packages including optional calling features.

There's no place like home.

I grew up in the great state of Kansas. When I was four years old, my family moved to Parsons, a small town of about 10,000 people in the southeastern corner of the state. My parents and many childhood friends still live there, and it's always a pleasure to visit. It is an area of the country that I care deeply about.

I'm therefore happy to report that I'll be heading back to the Sunflower State this week-for the first time in my capacity as a Commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)-to meet with a wide range of Kansans to talk about communications policy, technology, and rural deployment, and how they are helping to transform our way of life. Given the rapid transition to high-speed broadband networks and services globally, we are at a critical crossroads as regulators. It is important that the FCC work to remove barriers to investment and innovation and help unleash a wave of economic growth and job creation all across the country.

As I stated in my congressional testimony during my confirmation hearing, the world of communications was much less advanced when I was growing up. We made long-distance calls using a bulky phone connected to the wall by a thick wire, and our "data" connections to the outside world, such as they were, consisted primarily of analog video and local newspapers. In order to see how far we've come since then and where we still can improve, I'll visit a number of towns nestled in the southeast corner of the state.

A new text message emergency alert system has already proven its worth during the rare “derecho” storms that swept across the East Coast in late July.

Barely into its first few weeks of service, the new CMAS alerts flashed on cell phones in the Elmira, New York area almost instantly after the National Weather Service issuing a tornado warning.  Despite the fact that the area rarely experiences tornadoes, subscribers told the weather service that they took cover immediately.

 “Your warning of a tornado imminent in my area of New York, sent 7/26/12 via text message to my cell, was invaluable! From the bottom of my heart- THANK YOU National Weather Service!”one woman wrote on her Facebook page.

Delivered over cell phones and other mobile devices, these alerts and warnings are free and targeted to specific locales.  Consumers don’t need to sign up.  They just need is a handset capable of receiving the emergency alerts and a carrier who voluntarily provides the service.  Ask your carrier if they provide the service and whether your handset is CMAS-capable.

CMAS stands for Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) and the alerts that it issues are commonly known as Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA). Consumers should look for CMAS-compatible handsets or check whether they already have one. Many handsets were made to be compatible with CMAS well before the service was actually launched on April 7, 2012. 

In another digital first for the FCC, we just released an interactive, web-based map that illustrates our Broadband Progress Report.  This congressionally mandated report assesses how well broadband deployment and adoption is progressing in the nation. With this new map, our report is more responsive to both Congress and the American people.

This map is great for a bunch of reason.  First, as you zoom into the map or pan around, you can explore the intricate details of broadband availability in each and every county in the United States.  These details include not just the population, and income numbers from the census, but the percentage of each county that has access to the major fixed technologies providing broadband service.  This charting feature is a dynamic and robust way to investigate the data, see how different communities compare to each other, or just look at your home town.

Second, the map allows anyone access to the full set of raw data underlying the report. It used to be that maps like this were only viewed through complicated software or with specialized training.  You do not need access to special software, or fancy understanding of intricate bureaucratic processes; all you need is a web browser. 

Third, by publishing this map, we make our own processes more open, accountable and effective. It makes the data available to all Americans, not just specialized practitioners

A few more details. These maps are;