Over the past two weeks, I have heard people talk and read people’s blogs about the FCC’s National Broadband Plan. One of the things which troubles me is the use of the term “broadband.” An illustrative comments might be, “we have to ensure rapid deployment of broadband.”
Broadband is an adjective, not a noun. It refers to the available frequencies in a given communications channel to transmit information. Further, networks are not “fast”. Signals in an electronic communications network travel at the speed of light for the given medium, no faster or slower. The only thing that changes is the width of the band of frequencies used which has a direct impact on data transfer rate – the time it takes to transfer a file of a certain size between two points on the network.
So, to be precise, we want to ensure rapid and widespread deployment of broadband networks.
Insight: I do not drone on about this just to be a smartass. Communications networks and policy are extremely complicated matters. In this arena, it is really hard to get things “right”. It is therefore very important that we use language with precision. There is, of course, this creative use of the broadband as a noun from former-FCC Chairman Kevin Martin.*
Tags: Broadband, FCC, National Broadband Plan