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"Nearly two weeks remain before the U.S. Federal Communications Commission is scheduled to deliver its national broadband plan to Congress. But analysts are already picking potential winners and losers based on key themes that have already been identified, such as mobile broadband networks and spectrum swaps. The plan's overarching goal is to give all Americans access to affordable, high-speed broadband Internet."

The FCC is encouraging consumers to test their broadband speeds, and different areas of the country are showing some interesting results: D.C. and the greater Washington and New York areas enjoy the fastest service, with California performing slower than expected.

""The FCC's new digital tools will arm users with real-time information about their broadband connection and the agency with useful data about service across the country," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said in a statement. The FCC is also collecting information about where broadband is not available."

FCC has created a mobile application that tests the speed and quality of broadband connection.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski spoke today about some of the likely recommendations in the National Broadband Plan. Among them is a goal of 100 million households at speeds of 100 Megabits per second."

"FCC officials commissioned a study from Yochai Benkler at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society. They wanted to know more about how people in other countries connect to the Internet. Benkler says broadband in other developed countries is generally faster and cheaper than it is in the U.S. "You're looking at prices in the leading countries that are a third or a fifth of the prices that we're paying - and they're getting better speeds for it. So the differences are not subtle based on what we found," Benkler says."

Op Ed Exploring the rates and speeds available in other countries, and the fact that the United States has among the slowest speeds and the highest prices of advanced economies. Also discusses the proposed FCC National Broadband Plan.

The FCC conducted a survey identifying several barriers to broadband access amongst those who are unwired, with prices being the biggest factor. The FCC will submit a national broadband plan to congress next month

For many Americans, having high-speed access to the Internet at home is as vital as electricity, heat and water. And yet about one-third of the population, 93 million people, have elected not to connect.

"Federal regulators trying to bring high-speed Internet connections to all Americans will propose tapping the government program that now subsidizes telephone service in poor and rural areas. The Federal Communications Commission will include a proposal to revamp the Universal Service Fund as part of a national broadband plan due to Congress on March 17. Although the proposal itself has been expected for months, Friday's announcement offered the first solid details."

Google announced plans to provide fiber-to-the-home-connections of 1Gbit/sec speeds. Some argue that the announcement may be a negotiating tactic to prompt federal regulators to push for net neutrality.

"The Federal Communications Commission is proposing an ambitious 10-year plan that will reimagine the nation's media and technology priorities by establishing high-speed Internet as the country's dominant communication network. "