Over the past few months members of the United States Government have been meeting in public and private meetings with industry leaders. These meetings discussed the future of the Internet, Business Online and National Broadband Plans. In recent studies the United States placed 23rd out of 57 countries in broadband speeds and coverage. The recent report shows South Korea as the leader in broadband speeds and coverage followed by Hong Kong and Netherlands in a distance 2nd and 3rd. In response to these reports the Federal Government has begin to roll out new regulations, standards and national coverage.

First the new standards as defined by the United States Federal Government that broadband speeds must be 4mpbs downstream and 1mpbs upstream. This puts most DSL Plans into High-Speed Category instead of broadband; but higher broadband DSL Speeds are available in most major cities and coming to rural areas soon. These new standards and would not effect most of us using the Internet today. Next is National Coverage will be increase as contractors and the Government is investing nearly a billion dollars to expand to cover every location within the United States eventually removing the voice-only network.

Finally the new regulations; as all of this rolls out they are creating a standard regulated price for Broadband Internet Service; details on this are still unclear and being discussed. Their hopes are to remove the voice-only network by 2020 bring voice to broadband networks. Other things that may be effected it TV on demand online such like Hulu and Netflix. Finally what does this mean to all of us? The Government is moving to broadband network to speed up our services, free up wireless signals but the downside is less completion over which provider to go with. But as the providers can decide on what to send down their network limiting content or adding pay for content may become a reality. What are your thoughts on this regulations, rating and plan?