U.S. is falling behind in being digitally literate

-- First, to ensure opportunity, every American should have access to all essential broadband services at home.

-- Second, to ensure that we have the advanced networks we need to empower American businesses, we must substantially increase the capabilities of our networks. This means driving toward one gigabit to every community in America, through libraries, schools and community colleges; and creating the world's largest market for affordable, very high-speed broadband -- a "100 Squared" initiative of affordable 100 megabits per second to 100 million households -- so that inventors around the world will flock to our platform.

-- Third, to ensure that we capture the next wave of change, we must lead the world in the speed and reach of our mobile networks.

-- Fourth, to ensure the safety of Americans, every first responder must have access to a nationwide, wireless, interoperable broadband public safety network.

With smart policies, we can enable and accelerate the private investment necessary to achieve this future. If we have the political will, we can reclaim the licensed and unlicensed spectrum our wireless networks need to thrive. We can transform the multibillion-dollar fund that supports the universal availability of traditional voice communication to one that supports universal broadband. We can promote competition, for example, by removing barriers, encouraging investment and empowering consumers with the information they need to make the market work. And we can offer every American the tools to be digitally literate -- a prerequisite to participating in the new economy.

If we adopt these and other good ideas, we can harness the power of a technology with the greatest potential to advance our economic and social welfare since the advent of electricity.

Imagine a world where children in low-income neighborhoods can have access in their classrooms to the best teachers in the world and access at home to the most up-to-date e-textbooks. Picture a time when diabetic seniors living in rural areas without ready access to doctors can get nutrition counseling on home computers.

History teaches us that nations that lead technological revolutions reap enormous rewards. We can lead the revolution in wired and wireless broadband. But the moment to act is now.

The writer is chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.