Making broadband Internet access universally available is this century’s version of building highways or extending railroads coast-to-coast, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission said Tuesday (pdf).

FCC head, Julius Genachowski, said there were three reasons to improve broadband deployment and adoption numbers:

1. Broadband is crucial to our nation’s economic success.
2. Broadband helps tackle national challenges like education, health care, energy, and public safety.
3. Broadband allows citizens to engage their communities and representatives more effectively.

According to a report released last week by the FCC (pdf), the use of broadband varies greatly among different demographic groups in the United States.

For example, nearly 90 percent of families with incomes of $100,000 or higher subscribe to broadband services, compared with 35 percent of families with incomes of $20,000 or less. Rural households are less likely to subscribe than urban households.

Julius Genachowski said broadband is “a critical infrastructure challenge of our generation.” As part of the federal stimulus package, the FCC is charged with creating a plan — due in February — to make broadband available everywhere in the country. The stimulus money also includes $7 billion in grants for broadband access, and the recipients will be announced soon, Genachowski said in a speech at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service.

The FCC Report on Broadband Gaps (pdf) summarizes the situation with lots of charts and graphs. Mobile operators around the world are seeing a huge growth in traffic, reports C/Net. By 2014, mobile devices are expected to send and receive more data in one month than in all of 2008.

The FCC is creating a National Broadband Plan, due in February, that “shall seek to ensure that all people of the United States have access to broadband capability and shall establish benchmarks for meeting that goal.