The Federal Communications Commission is charged with coming up with a national broadband plan by February 2010, and officials provided a glimpse into their findings thus far at the commission's September monthly meeting.

Access to high-speed Internet service is quickly moving from a luxury to a necessity. The Federal Communications Commission is charged with coming up with a national broadband plan by February 2010, and officials provided a glimpse into their findings thus far at the commission's September monthly meeting.

Since Congress approved the stimulus package earlier this year, which mandated that the commission develop the broadband plan, the FCC has held 26 broadband workshops, heard testimony from 230 witnesses, fielded nearly 41,000 pages of written comments, and posted almost 40 blog posts to its new Blogband page.

At this point, the FCC task force has made some preliminary findings, most centered on the idea that access to broadband service will soon become essential for consumer savings, health care improvements, education, and employment options.

The commission found that most Internet applications are currently focused on communication and entertainment, but that is evolving into education, job training, business and other productive purposes.

More and more, users, however, put stress on the network. Broadband speeds advertised by ISPs are generally slower than they claim to be  as much as 50 percent "and possibly more during the busy hours," according to a statement from the FCC. About 1 percent of all users drive 20 percent of traffic and 20 percent of all users drive 80 percent of traffic, the FCC added.

This type of usage will require an investment in infrastructure, the FCC said. Depending on the type of speeds you want, investment will range from $20 billion for universal 768 Kbits/s to 3-Mbits/s service all the way up to $350 billion for 100-Mbits/s service.

Want more than one provider, guaranteed access to fixed and mobile service, or access in rural areas? Be prepared to tack on a few more billion to those totals, the FCC said.

Who has broadband? At this point, nearly two-thirds of Americans have broadband at home. About 33 percent have access but have not adopted it, and 4 percent said they have no access where they live.

"The cost of digital exclusion is large and growing for non-adopters, as resources for employment, education, news, healthcare, and shopping for goods and services increasingly move online," the FCC said.

The FCC has commissioned its own study to see how attitudes toward broadband and technology, affordability, and personal context affect adoption. Results are expected in November.

The commission is also examining effective use of spectrum, broadband and clean energy, improving government operations via broadband access, electronic education, helping those with disabilities, improving transparency in billing for online services, and public safety.

For those who want a more in-depth look at the FCC's findings, the commission has posted all 168 slides from this morning's presentation on its Web site.

Editor's Note: The FCC issued a revised statement late on Tuesday; a previous statement characterizing broadband speeds as 50 percent to 80 percent slower than advertised was incorrect, the agency said.