Signed into law on February 17, 2009, Section 6001(k) of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA, P.L. 111-5 ) mandated the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to prepare a report containing a national broadband plan. The impetus behind mandating a national broadband plan was derived from the widely accepted view in Congress of broadband as a critical public infrastructure, increasingly important to the nation's economic development. Broadband was also viewed as playing an increasingly critical role in addressing specific challenges facing the nation in areas such as health care, energy, education, public safety, and others. In the United States, broadband infrastructure is constructed, operated, and maintained primarily by the private sector, including telephone, cable, satellite, wireless, and other information technology companies. Although broadband is primarily deployed by private sector providers, federal and state regulation of the telecommunications industry, as well as government financial assistance programs, can have a significant impact on private sector decisions to invest in and deploy broadband infrastructure, particularly in underserved and unserved areas of the nation. When considering broadband policy, the ongoing challenge for Congressional policymakers is how to strike a balance between providing federal assistance for unserved and underserved areas where the private sector may not be providing acceptable levels of broadband service, while at the same time minimizing any deleterious effects that government intervention in the marketplace may have on competition and private sector investment. The ARRA specified that the national broadband plan "shall seek to ensure that all people of the United States have access to broadband capability and shall establish benchmarks for meeting that goal," and that the plan should include: an analysis of the most effective and efficient mechanisms for ensuring broadband access by all people of the United States; a detailed strategy for achieving affordability of such service and maximum utilization of broadband infrastructure and service by the public; an evaluation of the status of deployment of broadband service, including progress of projects supported by the grants made pursuant to this section; and a plan for use of broadband infrastructure and services in advancing consumer welfare, civic participation, public safety and homeland security, community development, health care delivery, energy independence and efficiency, education, worker training, private sector investment, entrepreneurial activity, job creation and economic growth, and other national purposes. Starting in the summer of 2009, an FCC task force embarked on a massive information gathering effort consisting of 36 public workshops, 9 field hearings, 31 public notices producing 75,000 pages of public comments, and 131 online blog postings triggering almost 1,500 comments. On March 16, 2010, the FCC publically released its report, Connecting America: The National Broadband Plan . As mandated by the ARRA, the report was formally submitted to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. At the March 16, 2010 Open Commission Meeting, the FCC Commissioners voted to approve a Broadband Mission Statement containing goals for a U.S. broadband policy. However, the FCC Commissioners did not vote on whether to approve the plan itself. The FCC's National Broadband Plan (NBP) is a 360-page document composed of 17 chapters containing 208 specific recommendations. Table 1 , at the end of this report, is an outline of the National Broadband Plan. Connecting America: The National Broadband Plan begins with an introduction, a statement of goals, and a discussion of the current state of the broadband "ecosystem." This is followed by three parts containing the bulk of the plan's recommendations: Part I, "Innovation and Investment," Part II, "Inclusion," and Part III, "National Purposes." The NBP concludes with a chapter on implementation and benchmarks. The NBP seeks to "create a high-performance America" which the FCC defines as "a more productive, creative, efficient America in which affordable broadband is available everywhere and everyone has the means and skills to use valuable broadband applications." In order to achieve this mission, the NBP recommends that the country set six goals for 2020: Goal No. 1: At least 100 million U.S. homes should have affordable access to actual download speeds of at least 100 megabits per second and actual upload speeds of at least 50 megabits per second. Speeds of 100 Mbps in 100 million homes (popularly referred to as "100 squared") would constitute next-generation broadband in most U.S. households. As a milestone, the FCC has set an interim goal of 100 million homes with actual download speeds of 50 Mbps and actual upload speeds of 20 Mbps by 2015. The FCC notes that existing providers are in the process of upgrading their networks, and it is likely that 90% of the country will have access to advertised peak download speeds of more than 50 Mbps by 2013. Goal No. 2: The United States should lead the world in mobile innovation, with the fastest and most extensive wireless networks of any nation. According to November 2009 data from American Roamer, 3G wireless service covers roughly 60% of U.S. land mass. Approximately 77% of the U.S. population live in an area served by three or more 3G service providers, 12% live in an area served by two, 9% live in an area served by one, and about 2% live in an area with no provider. The FCC currently has 50 MHz of spectrum that it can assign for broadband use. The NBP recommends making 500 MHz of spectrum available for broadband by 2020, with an interim benchmark of 300 MHz by 2015. Goal No. 3: Every American should have affordable access to robust broadband service, and the means and skills to subscribe if they so choose. There are two aspects to the goal of universal broadband: availability and adoption. Regarding broadband availability , 290 million Americans—95% of the U.S. population—currently live in housing units with access to terrestrial, fixed broadband infrastructure capable of supporting actual download speeds of at least 4 Mbps. This leaves a "gap" of 14 million people in the United States living in 7 million housing units that do not have access to terrestrial broadband infrastructure capable of this speed. The FCC has estimated that $24 billion in additional funding would be necessary to fill what it refers to as the "broadband availability gap." Regarding broadband adoption , the NBP sets an adoption goal of "higher than 90%" by 2020. Currently, broadband adoption stands at 67%, about two-thirds of the adult population. Certain demographic groups exhibit significantly lower rates of broadband adoption, for example: 40% of adults making less than $20,000 per year have adopted terrestrial broadband at home, 50% of adults in rural areas, 24% of those with less than a high school degree, 35% of those older than 65, 59% of African Americans, 49% of Hispanics, 42% of people with disabilities, and fewer than 10% of residents on Tribal lands. Goal No. 4: Every American community should have affordable access to at least 1 gigabit per second broadband service to anchor institutions such as schools, hospitals and government buildings. The NBP notes that while 99% of all health care locations with physicians have access to an actual download speed of at least 4 Mbps, and while 97% of schools are connected to the Internet (many supported by the federal E-rate program), more than 50% of teachers say slow or unreliable Internet access presents obstacles to their use of technology in classrooms, and only 71% of rural health clinics have access to mass-market broadband solutions. Further, many business locations, schools and hospitals often have connectivity requirements that cannot be met by mass-market DSL, cable modems, satellite or wireless providers, and must buy dedicated high-capacity circuits such as T-1 or Gigabit Ethernet service. The availability and price of such circuits vary greatly across different geographies. Goal No. 5: To ensure the safety of the American people, every first responder should have access to a nationwide, wireless, interoperable broadband public safety network. Nearly nine years after 9/11, first responders from different jurisdictions and agencies still often cannot communicate with each other during emergencies and continue to operate outdated communications systems, most of which do not have broadband capability. Goal No. 6: To ensure that America leads in the clean energy economy, every American should be able to use broadband to track and manage their real-time energy consumption. According to the FCC, "broadband and advanced communications infrastructure will play an important role in achieving national goals of energy independence and efficiency." Chapters 4 through 17 constitute the heart of the National Broadband Plan and contain 208 specific recommendations intended to help achieve the Plan's goals. The NBP's recommendations are directed to the FCC, to the Executive Branch (both to individual agencies and to Administration as a whole), to Congress, and to nonfederal and nongovernmental entities. Table 2 (at the end of this report) provides a listing of recommendations specifically directed to Congress. The NBP is categorized into three parts: Part I (Innovation and Investment) which "discusses recommendations to maximize innovation, investment and consumer welfare, primarily through competition. It then recommends more efficient allocation and management of assets government controls or influences." The recommendations address a number of issues, including: spectrum policy, improved broadband data collection, broadband performance standards and disclosure, special access rates, interconnection, privacy and cybersecurity, child online safety, poles and rights-of-way, research and experimentation (R&E) tax credits, R&D funding. Part II (Inclusion) which "makes recommendations to promote inclusion—to ensure that all Americans have access to the opportunities broadband can provide." Issues include: reforming the Universal Service Fund, intercarrier compensation, federal assistance for broadband in Tribal lands, expanding existing broadband grant and loan programs at the Rural Utilities Service, enable greater broadband connectivity in anchor institutions, and improved broadband adoption and utilization especially among disadvantaged and vulnerable populations.