If you’re building broadband networks in your community, take note: The new Federal Communications Commission Notice of Inquiry asks for input on a national broadband policy. In doing so, the FCC poses questions that communities should ask themselves before planning investments in broadband. Two critical questions:

1) How should broadband capability be defined going forward, and what does it mean to have access to it?

2) To what extent should programs that address consumer training and education about broadband play a role in a broadband plan?

What’s exciting is the promise of an end result that will allow us to communicate and share information on levels previously unimaginable. And that’s not all. The FCC envisions high-speed ubiquitous broadband helping to restore our nation’s economic wellbeing while opening doors of opportunity for more Americans - no matter who they are, where they are, or how they live.

Among other things, the FCC is seeking public comment on the following issues:

• Whether to adopt different definitions or standards of what constitutes broadband based on the technology being used to provide the service or the context in which the service is applied, or some combination of both;

• The value of open networks as an effective and efficient mechanism for ensuring broadband access for all Americans, and specifically on how the term “open” should be defined.

The Knight Center of Digital Excellence is working with a widely representative group, the U.S. Broadband Coalition, to develop recommendations for Broadband Adoption and Use. A leader in that effort, Jim Baller, launched the Coalition before the FCC was commissioned to create a national broadband policy . From what we hear, the Coalition’s recommendations are expected to grab the attention of FCC policymakers.

We welcome your thoughts on what you’d like to see included in those recommendations.

Tags: bandwidth, broadband, Broadband Adoption and Use, Broadband Expansion, community, digital, economy, FCC, high-speed, innovation, Internet, Jim Baller, KCoDE, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, national broadband policy, network, Notice of Inquiry, OneCommunity, U.S. Broadband Coalition