Universal Access To Broadband And Service Programs

Broadband is key to inclusive growth. It contributes substantially to social and economic development in the areas of job creation, business investment, and online services, among others. Several countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have already initiated reforms of their telecommunications framework to advance broadband towards universal usage. On one hand, the universal access service (UAS) policies that are relatively solid in middle-income or emerging countries will attract significant financial resources to manage the high costs that relate to new infrastructure in rural areas. Depending on the country's topography, however, the possibilities for development may be limited and costly. On the other, UAS policies that are considered advanced or have been long established (and rely considerably on the private sector) will need to address the disbanding of old frameworks. The objective of this publication is to assist national authorities in the region as they bridge the gaps between their countries and those that have developed effective UAS policies.

Contents: Introduction; Status of Broadband Deployment in the U.S.; Broadband in Rural Areas; Is Broadband Deployment Data Adequate?; Broadband and the Federal Role: The National Broadband Plan; Current Federal Broadband Programs: Rural Utilities Service Programs; The Universal Service Concept and the FCC: Universal Service and the Telecommunications Act of 1996; Universal Service and Broadband; Legislation in the 110th Congress; Legislation in the 111th Congress: P.L. 111-5: The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009; Other Broadband Legislation in the 111th Congress; Legislation in the 112th Congress; Concluding Observations. Tables. This is a print on demand edition of an important, hard-to-find report.

Wi-Fi has become the preferred means for connecting to the internet - at home, in the office, in hotels and at airports. Increasingly, Wi-Fi also provides internet access for remote communities where it is deployed by volunteers in community-based networks, by operators in 'hotspots' and by municipalities in 'hotzones'. This book traces the global success of Wi-Fi to the landmark change in radio spectrum policy by the US FCC in 1985, the initiative by NCR Corporation to start development of Wireless-LANs and the drive for an open standard IEEE 802.11, released in 1997. It also singles out and explains the significance of the initiative by Steve Jobs at Apple to include Wireless-LAN in the iBook, which moved the product from the early adopters to the mass market. The book explains these developments through first-hand accounts by industry practitioners and concludes with reflections and implications for government policy and firm strategy.