This morning, Chairman Genachowski laid out a proposal to get broadband to rural America while cutting waste and inefficiency in two of the Commission's largest programs.

Universal service has been core to the FCC's mission since the Communications Act of 1934 created the agency and committed our nation to making vital communications services accessible to all. The Universal Service Fund helped connect virtually every American to our 20th century communications grid. But this program, along with Commission's closely related Intercarrier Compensation rules, have become riddled with waste and inefficiency and are not up to our nation's broadband challenge. Today, up to 24 million Americans have no access to broadband;fixed or mobile.

At tomorrow's meeting, the Commission will vote on the proposal to transform the Universal Service Fund and Intercarrier Compensation rules from programs designed to support 20th Century voice networks to a force for expansion of 21st century fixed and mobile broadband and voice networks, while eliminating waste and inefficiency.

Read the full text of Chairman Genachowski's speech here.

The FCC held an Open Commission Meeting today to discuss expanding the reach and use of broadband by rural health care providers, increasing access and investment in mobile spectrum, and streamlining efficiency in the Electronic Tariff Filing System.

Chairman Genachowski shares his thoughts on today’s Open Commission Meeting below:
 

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. 

This Tuesday, the Federal Communications Commission will unveil the National Broadband Plan—a roadmap to connect all Americans to affordable, high-speed internet.

• Access and Affordability
• Mobile and Wireless
• Security and Privacy
• Digital Economy
• Internet in Schools
• Open Internet / Network Neutrality
• Others (learn more at Broadband.gov)

We are excited to introduce the latest round of new media roll outs that will help increase the participatory elements of the FCC's online operation and facilitate open discussion on the National Broadband Plan.

In addition to participating in the Broadband Workshops online and engaging in discussion on Task Force blog posts, you can now share your ideas on the National Broadband Plan through our new IdeaScale page.

IdeaScale is a crowdsourcing platform that allows users to publicly share and discuss ideas, as well as vote on their favorite ideas and topics presented.

This platform will provide a place for comprehensive and robust discussion of the sometimes controversial issues facing the task force, and will allow the fruitful conversations that have developed from the workshops to continue long after the panels have adjourned.

Our goal is to tap the distributed expertise of the American people through an open and earnest discussion on the best options for broadband in this country. We realize that government does not monopolize the best ideas, which is why we are making public engagement a priority.

I hope you take this opportunity to share your ideas and help advise the task force as it prepares to submit a plan to Congress by February 17th.

In another effort to bring 21^st century communications to the agency and increase online citizen participation, you can now find the FCC on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter as well. We have also added over 40 new RSS feeds from the FCC, ranging from Commissioner's Statements to announcements of Public Notices.

These are just a few updates from our New Media Team's first month at the FCC. There will be many more to come.