Yahoo! News  

The Federal Communications Commission said April 8 that it intends to move forward quickly with key recommendations in its national broadband plan—even though a federal appeals court this week undermined the agency’s legal authority to regulate high-speed internet access. The FCC needs that authority to push ahead with many parts of the broadband plan, which it released last month—including a proposal to expand broadband by tapping the Universal Service Fund, which subsidizes telephone service in poor and rural areas. Still, the agency said it will focus on a number of major proposals in the plan this year, such as freeing up more wireless spectrum to deliver mobile broadband services, with much of those airwaves potentially coming from television broadcasters; establishing a nationwide wireless network for public safety that will help firefighters, police officers, and other emergency workers communicate; and seeking ways to drive more competition in the market for network connections used by enterprise customers and other large bandwidth users.

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