US president Barack Obama outlined details of a plan to expand access to wireless broadband in a speech in Michigan. Mentioned in his State of the Union address last month, the plan dubbed the Wireless Innovation and Infrastructure Initiative calls for 500MHz of spectrum to be released for wireless data services in the next ten years. This will be realised in part by the FCC's proposed 'voluntary incentive' auctions, where spectrum holders can share in the proceeds of auctioning the frequencies. The government also plans to devote USD 3 billion of the spectrum proceeds to R&D in the wireless sector, through the new Wireless Innovation Fund. Obama targets 98 percent of Americans with access to 4G broadband within five years, and plans a one-time investment of USD 5 billion to help bring this to underserved areas. This will be part of the reform of the universal service fund to include support for broadband. He also reiterated the government's committment to a national public safety network, including USD 10.7 billion in funding for the project. The total spectrum sale is expected to raise USD 27.8 billion for the government alone, of which the president proposes devoting the USD 9.6 billion remaining after the above goals are achieved to reducing the government's deficit.
