FCC Chairman Proposes Gigabit Internet In All 50 States By 2015

You may know a little about Google Fiber, the insanely fast internet that arrived in Kansas City not too long ago, but the unfortunate news is that Google isn't really planning on rolling its Fiber service out to a majority of the US. However, FCC Chairman Julius Genachoski is calling for gigabit internet in all 50 states by 2015.

Genachowski is calling it the "Gigabit City Challenge," and he wants all 50 states to have at least one city with gigabit internet availability by the time 2015 rolls around. He's relying upon ISPs and state governments to help make it all a reality. Of course, other areas in the US have already implemented the faster internet protocol, mostly thanks to private funding, but Genachowski wants ISPs to step up.

Overall, the FCC said that there are currently 42 communities in 14 states with access to fiber-based internet, so we're already seeing some progress, but Genachowksi notes that as long as "we build it, innovation will come." He also says that the US ultimately needs this in order to "drive economic growth" and compete globally.

Of course, this is only a goal of the FCC's and not necessarily a mandate, so they're really only encouraging ISPs and state governments to step up, rather than force them to introduce gigabit internet, so we're going to have to see a lot of cooperation between certain parties if we want to see high-speed, fiber internet in all 50 states anytime soon.

Image via Flickr