Broadband, and Clouds, for All?

The Federal Communications Commission will submit a plan for implementing a U.S. national broadband policy to Congress on March 17, after requesting an extension from the original February 17 deadline. The policy, which is part of the Economic Recovery Plan that was issued in 2009, could cost between $20 billion and $350 billion to execute. Americans who live in or near urban areas are already using broadband connections, but many rural parts of the country do not currently have access to these high-speed, high-capacity connections. Read more about the plan and the deadline extension in today's Reuters article.

The widespread adoption of cloud computing is enabled by affordable, high-capacity broadband networks in conjunction with the development of more powerful, low-cost computer processing chips.

The move to make broadband available to all American homes, businesses, libraries, and schools is just one example of how cloud computing stands to increase in popularity in the coming years. As the technology infrastructure of the U.S. expands, so will the availability of new cloud-based technologies like OnDemand applications for email, photo sharing, and online document collaboration. Cloud-based solutions will grow in popularity not just among businesses, but within American homes for personal use as well. Congress' call for such a plan is a step in the right direction for companies like Akamai, Google, Salesforce, VMware, and Amazon, who are all dominant players in cloud computing and web services.

If a National Broadband Plan is the first among other government-led initiatives to increase and expand the country's technology infrastructure, it's only a matter of time before all American businesses and homes are running on the cloud.