In a letter sent to the Congress on Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski requested for some more time for the agency to deliver its final national broadband plan specifications.

"The commission respectfully requests a one month extension for the delivery of the final plan", Mr. Genachowski wrote to Sen. John Rockefeller, chairman of the Commerce Committee.

In early 2009, the stimulus bill was passed which required that FCC to come up with a plan to provide all residents of the country with access to broadband services and send it over to the committee by mid-February 2010. As per the new request, the FCC now wants to submit the plan on March 17.

The extra time is necessary to come up with a plan which "reflects the extraordinary importance of the task and responds to the unprecedented level of participation" that the commission has seen during comment period and public meetings, as has been written in the letter by Mr. Genachowski.