With the declaration of the National Broadband Plan for the United States, the emergency responders all across the country will now be given a dedicated wireless network by the U.S government and the entire project is expected to cost $16 billion. The monthly bill of this ambitious project, however, will be taken from the American citizens, in the form of an added one dollar or less to their monthly broadband bills. Even though the actual fee hasn’t been declared yet, still as per the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the fee would not be more than $1 or could even be less than that for all U.S broadband users.

So far, the undisclosed broadband fee is awaiting approval from the U.S Congress, but by judging the way, FCC is going through the wireless network project for the emergency responders, the fee could be passed very soon. As per FCC, the Emergency Response Interoperability Center (ERIC), the agency that would be responsible for the smooth functioning of the project could be up and ready for deployment in the next few weeks.

The FCC is expected to receive an additional funding of $6.5 billion from the Congress to begin the work on the proposed project, even though the National Broadband Plan calls for the state and local governments to participate financially. As per the estimated given by FCC, the operational costs for the entire wireless network for emergency responders could reach to $6 billion to $10 billion over 10 years.

Via PC World