BROADBAND PLAN

Broadband access is a vehicle that allows the delivery of an entirely new breed of media services and communications-oriented applications. In the long run, it is these new services and applications that will differentiate broadband from dial-up Internet access and give consumers a reason for subscribing to broadband. Audio and video are the obvious cornerstones of this coming high-speed revolution. Speedy connections coupled with always-on access will improve the consumer multimedia experience and change the types of business models that are viable in the interactive marketplace. As use of broadband grows to more than 20 million subscribers by 2004, traditional media companies may uncover opportunities for growth and acquisition in these alternative content categories enabled by the high-speed Internet. Broadband will not replace traditional media formats as they exist today. But it will emerge as a new source of fragmentation, siphoning off enough listeners and viewers to affect established media entities and their long-term growth.

Federal Full broadband lines are lines with information carrying capability in excess of 200 Kbps in both directions, simultaneously. One-way broadband lines are lines with information carrying capacity in excess of 200 Kbps in one direction (typically downstream) and less than or equal to 200 Kbps in the other direction (typically upstream).