FCC nominee: Goal to expand broadband

The man nominated to be chairman of the Federal Communications Commission is putting broadband front-and-center on his priority list. Julius Genachowski, nominated by President Barack Obama, plans to roll out broadband to rural and other areas that lack service once he takes office. This will make it easier for citizens to communicate online, and also will ratchet up the need for government to deliver better Internet services.

"We as a country are not where we need to be, with respect to our communications infrastructure," Genachowski said last week during his Senate confirmation hearing. "We should have, I believe, a communications infrastructure that is world-leading, a 21st-century infrastructure that generates economic growth, opportunity, prosperity."

The economic stimulus package provides $7.2 billion for just such a challenge. The money is in the process of being awarded, and many communities across the country have plans to use it to bring their communities into an Internet-savvy world.

With that kind of money available, the federal government will have to be at the center of online access and make sure that it has the online services available to a new crop of Internet users.

For more on the new FCC chairman:
- check out this Computerworld article