In its newly issued Sixth Broadband Deployment Report, the FCC has found that between 14 and 24 million Americans still lack access to broadband, and the immediate prospects for deployment to them are bleak. Many of these Americans are poor or live in rural areas that will remain unserved without reform of the universal service program and other changes to U.S. broadband policy that spur investment in broadband networks by lowering the cost of deployment.
The FCC said its report underscores the need for comprehensive reform of the Universal Service Fund, innovative
approaches to unleashing new spectrum, and removal of barriers to infrastructure investment.
The report also takes the long-overdue step of updating a key standard -- speed -- used to determine whether households are served by broadband. It upgrades the standard from 200 kbps downstream, a standard set over a decade ago when web pages were largely text-based, to 4 Mbps downstream and 1 Mbps upstream.
"On Congress's question of universality--whether all Americans are on track to being served--the best available data shows that between 14 and 24 million Americans live in areas where they cannot get broadband. These are mostly expensive-to-serve areas with low population density. Without substantial reforms to the agency's universal service programs, these areas will continue to be unserved, denied access to the transformative power of broadband," stated FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski.
http://www.fcc.gov
The FCC said its report underscores the need for comprehensive reform of the Universal Service Fund, innovative
approaches to unleashing new spectrum, and removal of barriers to infrastructure investment.
The report also takes the long-overdue step of updating a key standard -- speed -- used to determine whether households are served by broadband. It upgrades the standard from 200 kbps downstream, a standard set over a decade ago when web pages were largely text-based, to 4 Mbps downstream and 1 Mbps upstream.
"On Congress's question of universality--whether all Americans are on track to being served--the best available data shows that between 14 and 24 million Americans live in areas where they cannot get broadband. These are mostly expensive-to-serve areas with low population density. Without substantial reforms to the agency's universal service programs, these areas will continue to be unserved, denied access to the transformative power of broadband," stated FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski.
http://www.fcc.gov
has selected Alcatel-Lucent for an IP network transformation that will converge its exiting metro network with IP/MPLS-based Carrier Ethernet infrastructure. Specifically, Alcatel-Lucent will supply FET with a Carrier Ethernet solution that includes its 7750 Service Router, 7705 Service Aggregation Router (SAR), 7210 Service Access Switch (SAS) and 5620 Service Aware Manager. Alcatel-Lucent will also provide surround services and expertise in the areas such as project management, consulting and design, integration services, installation, deployment and maintenance. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Transtelco provides metro and long-haul transport, dedicated IP access, co-location and voice termination services as a wholesale carrier and directly to end-user customers, ranging from small and medium businesses to enterprises. 
featuring speeds exceeding 500 Mbps full duplex along with a built-in compression option that delivers speeds up to 1000 Mbps with a single carrier and in a single channel. Link capacities can also be increased using the system's built-in capacity aggregation capability. 
LightSquared will provide wholesale wireless broadband capacity to a diverse group of customers, including retailers; wireline and wireless communication service providers; cable operators; device manufacturers; web players; content providers; and many others. The LightSquared network will allow these partners to offer satellite-only, terrestrial-only, or integrated satellite-terrestrial services to their end users. 
