With the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) scheduled to deliver a National Broadband Plan to Congress on February 17, the task force involved in developing the Plan has issued a preliminary report on the broadband status in the US.

The FCC Plan aims at addressing pertinent broadband-specific issues like deployment, adoption, affordability, and the use of broadband to advance solutions to national priorities.

The status report, which also describes the framework the team intends using to explore gaps in broadband's reach and find workable solutions to close those gaps, said that while the task force has already conducted 26 workshops and hearings, six others have been planned.

Adding that nearly 230 witnesses had been testified during these sessions, the task force filed nearly 41,000 pages of written comments with the FCC in response to its National Broadband Plan Notice of Inquiry.

The task force's report underlined that there was a 50-80 percent lag between the actual broadband speeds vis-à-vis the advertised speeds. About deployment of broadband, the report noted that, going by preliminary estimates, a total investment for deployment can range from $20 billion for 768 Mbps-3Mbps service to $350 billion for more than 100 Mbps service.

The report also revealed that two-third Americans use broadband at home; 33 percent have access to it but have not adopted it; and 4 do not have broadband access.