Julius Genachowski, chair of the Federal Communications Committee (FCC), called mobile communications “a powerful productivity and marketing tool for small businesses” and stressed the need for mobile broadband during testimony to the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship on Tuesday, April 27. Yet Gordon Smith, president and CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), testified that the FCC’s National Broadband Plan could hurt small businesses.

“Broadband is the indispensable infrastructure of the digital age—the 21st century equivalent of what canals, railroads, the highways, the telephone, and electricity were for previous generations,” Genachowski said. “And small businesses are the indispensable driver of economic growth and job creation in our country.”

In February 2009, Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. As part of this legislation, Congress asked the FCC to produce a comprehensive plan to provide access to 100-Mbit/s connections to the Internet for 100 million U.S. citizens by 2020. The FCC released its plan in March. 4G wireless technologies such as Long-Term Evolution and WiMAX will be key to the plan in serving areas where wired infrastructure isn’t sufficient or available.

“A growing umber of small businesses—those that operate ‘on the go’—increasingly place more and more reliance on mobile broadband,” Genachowski said. “Together, wired and wireless mobile broadband brings small businesses new revenue from new customers and lower operating costs from business tools available in the Internet ‘cloud.’ That’s a formula for more profit, more investment, and more jobs.”

During his testimony, Smith criticized proposals to shift spectrum currently used for broadcast television to broadband applications. He said that his association includes many small broadcasters in less populous markets that are, in effect, small businesses. He also said that these broadcasters are working with innovative startup companies to use that spectrum to create new business models.

“Significantly reducing the amount of spectrum allocated for broadcast television, as the current plan suggests, could stifle opportunities for new entrepreneurs like these to develop innovative services for the public,” Smith said. “It could also diminish possible opportunities for other small businesses to gain access to affordable data networks.”

Smith criticized a number of other aspects of the plan, such as the effects on advertising revenue and alternative programming streams; the potential for traffic to overwhelm the network; the need for a comprehensive spectrum inventory; and the effects of spectrum fees and redistribution. He also said that the FCC should foster deployment of fixed wireless broadband services using vacant broadcast channels in rural areas.

“Use of vacant spectrum (aka ‘white spaces’) between television channels for fixed licensed broadband in rural areas is a way to improve broadband access for these underserved areas. Engineered properly, these unused channels could presumably be also utilized for backhaul in these areas,” Smith said. “Broadband deployment in rural areas can be swift, non-disruptive, and serve areas with the greatest need.”

“Too many businesses operate in regions of our country that still do not have access to high-speed broadband infrastructure at all. In most rural counties, almost 50% of businesses simply do not have access to broadband at speeds of 4 Mbits/s or higher, which we consider the minimum today to seize the broadband opportunity,” Genachowski said, also noting the need to serve rural areas. And though the FCC and NAB differ on strategy, both organizations see the need for more broadband.

“Supporting small businesses and entrepreneurs must be a national priority of paramount importance,” Genachowski said. “By arming small businesses with broadband and encouraging digital literacy, e-commerce, and online communications, we can help ensure that broadband fulfills its promise as a transformative tool for small businesses and America’s economy.”

“We believe the National Broadband Plan represents an ideal opportunity to begin a serious discussion about the future of communications in our country,” Smith said. “Contrary to what you may have heard, broadcasters are not anti-broadband. Indeed, we believe, as do many Americans, that expansive high-speed broadband connectivity will have strong positive effects on the economy, on health care, and the environment.”