Plan Aims to Expand Broadband Across US

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This is the VOA Special English Economics Report, from voaspecialenglish.com A newly released proposal calls for almost everyone in the United States to have high-speed Internet service at home within ten years. On March sixteenth the Federal Communications Commission sent its National Broadband Plan to Congress. The FCC wants one hundred million homes to have inexpensive Internet service at ten times current speeds. Another goal for twenty twenty is to have the fastest and most extensive wireless network of any nation. The United States invented the Internet. Yet a recent study placed it sixteenth in broadband access. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski says the service available is slow and costly compared with other developed countries. Currently, about two-thirds of Americans have broadband at home. But almost one hundred million do not. The government says fourteen million of them cannot get broadband even if they wanted it. The United States built a national highway system to expand transportation. Now President Obama says a similar effort is needed to expand broadband networks. His administration says expanding access is an economic development issue. Fast connections, it says, are important to business and job creation, and to other areas like education and health care. The government proposes to spend up to sixteen billion dollars on a wireless network for public safety agencies. Most Americans get broadband service through their cable television provider or …

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