Without the stimulus of the president’s recovery bill,

Another recent report estimates that a “stimulus package that spurs or supports $10 billion of investment in 1 year in broadband networks will support an estimated 498,000 new or retained U.S. jobs for one year.”

According to Brian David, director-adoption and usage for the FCC’s Omnibus Broadband Initiative, the broadband plan may end up establishing goals for broadband adoption rates in the U.S. to rise to the “high 70s” in percentage terms by 2015, with a longer-term target of 88% to 90%. By comparison, he noted that adoption rates in the U.S. of basic home telephone services never got much beyond 95%.

According to Brian David, director-adoption and usage for the FCC’s Omnibus Broadband Initiative, estimates say that about 65% of homes in the U.S. subscribe to broadband services currently, while 5% do not have access to broadband services and 30% of homes have access but do not subscribe.

It is the consumers in small and rural markets, even those who would otherwise not wish to use high congestion applications, who are the ultimate victims of the prohibition on network congestion management. These users pay the price for regulation when they are unable to obtain broadband services because those firms that could otherwise profitably offer service are no longer interested in their needs due to regulation.

Recent policy initiatives seem to indicate a distaste for granular network management and instead a preference that operators should be strongly encouraged (if not simply forced) to “invest their way out” of congestion problems by expanding capacity

Much of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s funding is largely targeted at rural, relatively high-cost markets. Internet regulations of this sort may reduce the effectiveness of such funds by raising the cost of network deployment and management.

FCC has attracted 136,730 followers on the blog broadcasting service Twitter, ahead of the Justice Department—which has 134,966 followers. By comparison, CDC Emergency, which provides updates on public health crises, has about 1.09 million followers. FCC is ranked 531st by number of followers on Twitterholic, a site that tracks the most popular users.

According to Gary Evenson, administrator of the Wisconsin Public Service Commission (PSC) telecommunications division, the [Wisconsin] PSC estimates there is broadband access in more than 80% of the state, and finding that last 15% to 20% that doesn’t have it “is a challenge.”

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration has awarded $1.9 million for broadband mapping and planning to Alabama. $1.4 million, will be used for mapping and data collection. The rest will be used for planning during a two-year period.