Broadband Demand and Wireless

Abstract- Notwithstanding the inconclusive status of the public policy debate on intervention in support of broadband Internet access, wireless broadband can play an important role in the overall adoption of broadband in the U. S. Results from a recent consumer survey of broadband demand attributes informs here a discussion of wireless broadband, including the key role of reliability, wireless as an element of government competition policy, spectrum policy reform, fostering of novel decentralized access services, the role of wireless in closing the digital divide, the use of mobility to expand applications ’ user communities, and wireless broadband in public safety. I. THE BROADBAND POLICY DEBATE Broadband Internet access suffers from a multiplicity of definitions [1]. Usually, bit rate is taken as the defining characteristic with definitional rates ranging from 200 kbps to 100 Mbps. Alternatively, broadband is sometimes defined in terms of the applications it enables, or other characteristics than bit rate (such as “always on” connectivity or low latency). We will use the U. S