Last week the FCC's International Bureau approved a license transfer application, originally filed in March 2009, involving Harbinger Capital Partners and SkyTerra Communications.

This approval sets the stage for billions of dollars of investment -- and corresponding job creation -- to construct and operate a new, national, broadband network integrating satellite and ground-based facilities. Consistent with the recommendations in the National Broadband Plan, we hope that Harbinger's investment will increase the spectrum used for broadband, enhance wireless competition, and spur innovation and entrepreneurship in the broadband ecosystem -- particularly as the proposed network will be both open and offer wholesale 4G services.

Although the specifics of their business model are obviously highly confidential due to their competitive sensitivity, we were gratified that Harbinger volunteered commitments that were both consistent with their plans and assured the FCC that the promised public interest benefits of the transaction would indeed materialize. These commitments -- building out the network to 260 million Americans by 2015 and allowing the FCC prior review of potential leases of spectrum or capacity to the two largest incumbent carriers -- do not prohibit any specific transactions. But they do provide some reassurance that the approval will ignite new broadband competition while protecting the public from any potential harms.

Harbinger’s commitments are, of course, specific to this transaction involving mobile satellite service spectrum and do not affect any of our other spectrum policies (any changes to the Commission's general spectrum policies would involve a notice and comment rulemaking process).
 

Today’s news has several nuggets on the importance of libraries in the broadband access ecosystem. The University of Washington released a study, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, that found that 77 million people – or one-third of Americans over the age of 14 – have used public library computer or wireless network to go online at some point. Some 40% of library computer users sought help with career needs and 37% looked for information about health issues.

Another news item underscored the importance of Internet access at libraries in the current economic climate. The Baltimore Sun has a story on proposed budget cuts for the City of Baltimore since, like many cities around the country, the recession is forcing Baltimore to tighten its belt. However, the city’s libraries are “largely untouched” from proposed cutbacks because library use has increased by 20% in the past year. Much of this increase is attributed to unemployed people using library to look for and apply for jobs. As FCC research shows, 60% of broadband users have gone online to apply or look for a job – and 73% of those not currently employed have done this.

All of this is very consistent with research the FCC commissioned from the Social Science Research Council to better understand adoption barriers among low-income Americans. A key finding of that research is that library resources have come under stress during the recession as people come there to apply for jobs or carry out other important tasks.

The National Broadband Plan recognizes the important role libraries play in access. The Plan recommends that Congress consider providing additional funds to the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences to improve connectivity, enhance hardware, and train personnel of libraries and other community based organizations. Libraries serve not only as a crucial resource for access, but they also provide an environment where new broadband users can acquire the skills to take advantage of the range of online resources.

 As Chief of the FCC’s International Bureau, I know how important it is for policymakers worldwide to stay in touch so we can share our diverse experiences and learn of new, innovative ideas.

That’s why I was so pleased that today, the FCC hosted the first-ever online global policy meeting with over 140 international participants from telecommunications agencies, ministries, and organizations around the world, representing over 25 countries. It is especially fitting that our first online global meeting was to discuss the National Broadband Plan.

 

Blair Levin, executive director of the FCC’s Omnibus Broadband Initiative, and members of the broadband team discussed the key goals of the plan:  to increase innovation and investment; provide more spectrum for increasingly popular mobile wireless services; ensure broadband availability everywhere so that all are included in the broadband era; put broadband to work to improve education, healthcare and public safety, and more.  They also discussed how the plan will be implemented to meet these goals.

Today’s interactive on-line video conferencing platform allowed participants to see the streaming video presentation from the FCC, ask the host questions online, converse with each other and with the host, and view documents used during the presentation. Participants only needed an Internet connection and a computer to join the online conference. Representatives from around the world asked a range of questions focusing on Internet speed, standards, accessibility of broadband, and spectrum issues.   

 

 

In the International Bureau, we view the release of the National Broadband Plan as a beginning. It is the beginning of an exchange of ideas with people around the world -- so we not only learn, but can avoid past experiences that may not have worked, and take advantage of those that did, for the benefit of others. This international dialogue on ways to encourage broadband deployment and adoption will continue. We at the FCC very much look forward to it.

 

A recording of today’s on-line meeting is available at http://www.fcc.gov/live. You may read the National Broadband Plan at http://broadband.gov/plan; and learn more about it at  http://broadband.gov.

“We need to focus on multiple strategies,” Chairman Genachowski told CNET’s Molly Wood, explaining the approach of the National Broadband Plan in an interview this week. The chairman expounded on the various routes the plan recommends to achieve greater affordability, higher speed broadband service, and to keep pace with other advanced nations. (Click on the image below to watch the video)

Omnibus Broadband Initiative Executive Director Blair Levin gave a speech entitled “A Plan of Firsts” as part of a panel convened by the Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy at the National Press Club to discuss early reactions to the National Broadband Plan.

Ours is a plan of firsts.

Our Plan marks the first time the federal government did an in-depth survey of non-adopters of broadband, to understand what influences that choice, a prerequisite to increasing adoption rates.

Our Plan marks the first time the federal government did a cost model to determine the net present value private investment gap for communities not served by broadband, a pre-requisite for moving universal service to support broadband.

[Read the full speech here.]

Recent years have seen an explosion in content creation for handheld and desktop devices. Both at home and abroad, we have seen significant innovation in applications having social impact ranging from text message donations for Haiti  to online civic engagement tools to mobile medical data collection.

But there is still much room to innovate when it comes to social-purpose apps. That’s why the FCC and the Knight Foundation are partnering to sponsor an “Apps for Inclusion” competition to develop apps specifically supporting people at the edge of the digital divide – i.e., those who traditionally have lower adoption rates and are often geographically and economically isolated.

With $100,000 in prize money from the Knight Foundation, “Apps for Inclusion” encourages technology innovators and tinkerers to collaborate with local organizations and individuals currently underserved by the digital revolution to rethink government and community services and create tools making it easier for citizens to receive those services through mobile and online applications.

We want to leverage your talent and the ideas of Americans across the country to foster the creation of a new suite of social-purpose apps manifesting the core goals of the National Broadband Plan - the utilization of technology to improve Americans access to health, education, public safety, key government services and more.

All entries will be public and will be seen by a judging panel of experts as well as policy makers and citizens from across the country. Winners will be named in several categories, including “people’s choice awards.”

The competition is set to launch soon. Sign up now to learn official contest details as they are released.  
 

Today, the FCC is releasing the raw data files that were the basis for “Broadband Adoption and Use in America” working paper. The Broadband Data Improvement Act directed the Commission to “conduct and make public periodic surveys of consumers” as part of the FCC’s efforts to understand who uses broadband, who does not, and, if not, why people do not subscribe. We released the results of the survey on February 23rd, and today we make available to the public the underlying data for the survey. The data (downloadable here) comes in several files:

1. Raw data: Delivered in SPSS format, which is a popular program for statistical analysis of data. It is a format most other popular statistical programs can read.
2. Codebook: This file explains in great detail the structure of the SPSS file, and will be of interest mainly to those wishing to do their own analysis of the data.
3. Cross-tabulations: These files show how different categories of respondents (e.g., those in certain age cohorts, or those with different educational levels) answered survey questions.

If you’d like to see the “topline” survey results, they are already online here.

The FCC has a commitment to transparency in conducting the analysis that helps shape the National Broadband Plan. We hope interested members of the public benefit from having access to the data, and the ability to ask questions of the data that the FCC working paper did not pursue. Enjoy!

Immediately following the release of the National Broadband Plan, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski sat down for a YouTube Interview to answer questions from the American people about the future of the Internet.

The interview was lead by Steve Grove, Director of News & Politics at YouTube, and was the second interview of its kind following the session with President Obama last month.

The questions were interesting and insightful, and drove discussion to the core issues facing the future of the Internet in America.

Thanks to all of you who submitted questions, and I encourage everyone to watch the important conversation below.