FCC promises broadband plan will encourage 'competition,' help small businesses

The Federal Communication Commission's forthcoming broadband plan will emphasize competition as a key force to lower Internet costs for small businesses, according to the agency's chairman.

At an event in Washington on Thursday, FCC chief Julius Genachowski stressed that broadband access has a "dramatic effect on small businesses -- a key engine for new job creation in our economy."

Consequently, he said his agency's forthcoming National Broadband Plan, due to Congress on March 17, will include a series of proposals designed to ensure competition among Web providers -- an effort to drive innovation while lowering small businesses' costs.

"Competitive providers can bridge the gap and increase overall availability of broadband services and applications in unserved and underserved areas, in rural and urban centers,” Genachowski said alongside Small Business Administration chief Karen Mills. 

"The Plan will put forward strategies and initiatives to empower small businesses across American to connect and compete with their counterparts anywhere in the world," he continued.

Genachowski failed to elaborate on what, specifically, those proposed competition provisions might include. However, the tech community has buzzed for months now that the FCC's repeated mention of "robust competition" perhaps signals it may require Internet providers to share their lines.

The SBA has recently pushed the FCC to consider such an approach, arguing that shared high-speed Internet lines would encourage healthy competition between AT&T, Verizon and other, smaller firms. 

Some agency officials have subsequently suggested a shared-line plan could reduce small businesses' annual Internet bills and permit them to hire more workers.

But the telecommunications companies themselves have fiercely resisted those calls. Both AT&T and Verizon last month at one point said the arrangement would ultimately deter them from spending money on upgrading their resources and improving users' connections to the Web, according to previous reports.

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