On Friday, Jan. 29, the FCC commissioners' staffs got their first in what will be a series of briefings on the national broadband plan, due to Congress March 17. The commissioners can't be briefed collectively outside of a public meeting because of sunshine rules.
According to sources who spoke on background and declined to provide details, Friday's briefing from the broadband staff was on deployment and transparency, specifically looking at where wired broadband service is or isn't provided, including estimates on places where the population is so spread out that it is not financially viable for a private company and what it might cost to subsidize that service.
On the transparency side, staffers talked about recommendations on consumer disclosure.
Monday's briefing is scheduled to deal with set-top boxes and rights of way. More briefings are planned through about the second week of February.
Still no word on whether the commissioners will vote on the report, or just be briefed before it is submitted to Congress.
