In the US, the federal government's US$787 billion "stimulus package" seems set to provoke major changes in the way Internet access and services are delivered to the American public. Regulators are devising a "national broadband strategy" - and it will have a profound effect on both telcos and cablecos, reports Martyn Warwick.
The small print of the economic bail-out package requires the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) to determine how tax dollars will be spent on deploying and upgrading Internet access across the United States.
The FCC's responsibility is also to update policies and regulations that have conspicuously failed to keep pace with changes in communications technologies and the different ways in which the US public actually get their phone, cable TV and Internet services.
Close to $8 billion of the stimulus package has has been earmarked for the comms sector and now the rules for how companies can apply for and use the funds are being drafted.
The acting head of the FCC, Michael Copps says that the new US infrastructure plan will be "the biggest responsibility given to the FCC since the Telecom Act of 1996" (and that particular piece of legislation is generally regarded as having been a marked failure).
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