The main purpose of Broadband.gov is to give the public insight into the National Broadband Plan, and the FCC's plans on how to spread the advancements in broadband technology to the nation. The website details how expanding broadband across the nation will improve health care,[2] education,[3] the environment,[4] government performance speeds,[5] civic engagement,[6] and public safety[7] in great detail on separate pages. In addition, the website gives continual progress reports on the government's progress on the National Broadband Plan, in both yearly and quarterly installments.[8] Users can also download the National Broadband Plan from Broadband.gov for consumption by the general public.[9] Any changes to the National Broadband Plan, or reports on the effectiveness of the plan thus far are also posted on the website for users to download and examine.[10]
Resources
Broadband.gov offers resources for consumers to see the local effects of the National Broadband Plan, and broadband as a whole. Featured is a Consumer Broadband Test that reports a user's internet download and upload speeds, latency and jitter. The government then uses these resources to analyze the nation's broadband quality, and to plan future locations that need improvements. Additional resources include a Deadzone Reporter, which allows the user to inform the government of locations without broadband, the Spectrum Dashboard (runs off another site), which tells the user how broadband connections are spread among various radio frequencies, and a link to the broadband map.gov, which allows the user to find any currently available broadband providers in their current location. Another important point of broadband.gov is to advocate the importance of the advancement of the medical field into the field of technology. Among the most advanced initiatives for using broadband is to improve health care in enhanced medical record-keeping that knits together electronic databases, giving patients and authorized providers instant and centralized access to information such as health histories, treatment regimens and medical images.[11]
Broadband.gov also gives a brief overview to the user of what broadband is, how it relates to the Internet, its uses, and how having broadband Internet in the users' neighborhood will improve their daily living. Legal documents giving a framework of the National Broadband Plan, and other documents that show how the plan is progressing so far, are also included in this section for dissemination by the user.
Workshops
Also contained on Broadband.gov is a list of workshops held by the FCC. "The goal of the workshops will be to promote an open dialogue between the FCC and key constituents on matters important to the National Broadband Plan."[12] These meetings are held at the FCC and are put onto the Internet for everyone to have access to them. Past workshops have included how the broadband will be deployed, how schools, small businesses, and on-the-job training will benefit, and the issues that can come up with distributing broadband to the nation.[13] Field events are also planned across the nation to help the FCC get word out on the National Broadband Plan, broadband.gov, and the FCC's plans for the future work on the Broadband initiative. Field events also give the public a chance to respond directly to FCC representatives about their concerns on the National Broadband Plan.
Blog
Broadband.gov also encompasses one of the FCC's official blogs, nicknamed the BlogBand. The blog gives an inside view on the National Broadband plan and related issues. Here, various FCC commissioners and chair people make their comments on the future of the National Broadband plan, and the FCC's official stance on various forms of technology, such as the advancement of smartphone applications and their effects on our daily routines,[14] or a summary on the latest Consumer Electronics Show, and what the latest technologies could bring. The blog also gives progress on broadband.gov as well, giving statistical information about the usage of various parts of the website, such as the National Broadband Map.[15]
