The panel that regulates the nation's public communications systems is to call for high-speed internet to be named the dominant US network, The New York Times reported Saturday.
The Federal Communications Commission is to submit a plan to Congress Tuesday that was expected to trigger debate and strong lobbying fights among telecommunications giants battling over customers, DPA reported.
The plan would displace telephone and broadcast television as the country's premier communication systems and would include a subsidy for internet providers to wire rural parts of the country that now have no access, the Times reported, quoting commission officials.
Under former president George W Bush, the commission served largely to censor indecency on the public airwaves. US President Barack Obama has declared his intention to boost productivity by expanding the broadband internet system.
The commission plan would ask some broadcasters to give up unused spectrum to make room for more wireless transmissions and would call for the development of a new universal set-top box that connects to the internet and cable television service.
About one-third of Americans have no access to high-speed internet service because of isolation, cost or preference, the Times reported.