The release of the United States Federal Communication Commission (FCC) plan to improve the speed of the nation’s broadband network (Read the story on Reuters.com) shows that there is a shared interest is making sure the technology continues to progress with the information demands of citizens and businesses.
The FCC’s plan – “Connecting America: The National Broadband Plan” - sets a goal for 100 million American households to have Internet speeds of 100 megabits per second by 2020. According to Reuters, the current household average speed is about 4 Mbps. Even homes with cable or fiber Internet access only achieve speeds averaging 5 Mbps to 6 Mbps. Dakota County, where our Eagan office is located, averages 9 Mbps.
The plan is ambitious. It is a long and comprehensive document that calls for many things, including fees and spectrum sale to fund itself. I am impressed with the FCC’s work and will be curious to see the rule-making and jockeying that follows.
It’s worth noting, the FCC plan references the Minnesota Ultra High-Speed Broadband Task Force, which I chaired, in regard to state-level strategies to encourage adoption.
I’ll be following the discussion of the FCC plan. I expect it to meet very hard lobbying resistance from a range of current providers. Time will tell. I am pleased to have a plan and a vision for this very important aspect of modern living.
Ultra high-speed Internet makes it easier for the customers of Thomson Reuters, especially those with clients all over the world, to do their work. It’s also important for our businesses as we seek ways to increase the speed we transmit information.
I should also note, the developments at the FCC follow recent news about Google’s plan to build and test an ultra high-speed broadband network in at least one American city. Cities like Topeka, Kan. and Duluth, Minn. have made news for pulling out all the stops to lure Google.
I was happy to hear Google announce this initiative. It’s unclear how long it will take them to do it but it will be interesting to see how it plays out.
Google struck while the iron was hot. But the real question is once they do it, what applications will people run on the connection to really expand it and see what it can do?
How can companies and innovators facilitate the development of applications that exploit those higher speeds?
Rick King
Chief Technology Officer
Thomson Reuters, Professional
Posted by Rick King in:
Company Current | Voices |
I don’t see the higher bandwidth as a big factor for legal information speed. A lot of legal information relies on search and retrieval, so providers need to focus on the supporting systems for delivery of speedy results, rather than on the bandwidth. Using AJAX and (hopefully) HTML5 are better ways of improving legal information use than bandwidth. Users need to make sure their systems are fast too, but the actual bandwidth of 5-9 Mbps is probably adequate.
That may change in the future as information providers build more workflow tools to overlay the search and retrieval basics. Dashboards, multimedia updates, more graphical online books (where you can turn pages or navigate a book format) would take better advantage of bandwidth increases. Companies might find ways to push large amounts of information to customers, essentially pre-loading local information caches, based on current awareness or other measured information needs.
Higher bandwidth will be a godsend for business users trying to work securely while mobile. It’ll be interesting to see how fast things can get!