The White House will announce today the allocation of $10.7 billion to build a new nationwide wireless network for emergency workers, and $5 billion to help Americans get mobile access to high-speed Internet service, reported Bloomberg (News - Alert). The funds for the program will be sourced from the auction of airwaves voluntarily relinquished by television broadcasters in return for part of the proceeds, an action that is expected to raise about $27.8 billion. The remaining $9.6 billion would be used to reduce the federal deficit, said Jason Furman, deputy director of the White House National Economic Council, during a conference call on Wednesday. Some $3 billion of the $10.7 billion will be allocated for research and development.

The president will outline the proposal during a trip today to Marquette, Michigan, where access to high-speed Internet has helped local businesses reach global markets, according to an administration statement. The initiative fleshes out a pledge he made in the State of the Union address to make wireless high- speed Internet, or broadband, available to 98 percent of Americans within five years as a way to accelerate economic growth and job creation, said Bloomberg.

“High-speed Internet allows small businesses to reach markets beyond the one that they’re in, in the next town, in the next state or even in a different country,” Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski (News - Alert) said in an interview conducted on February 8. “We need to take that as seriously as we took electricity and telephone service in the 20th century.”

Buyers – or at least bidders -- of the spectrum auction are expected to include companies such as Verizon (News - Alert) Wireless, AT&T, Sprint Nextel and Deutsche Telekom AG’s T-Mobile unit.

The funds will be used for infrastructure improvement and research into newer technologies. Infrastructure improvement is expected to include building wireless towers and laying fiber to compete globally, said the FCC's (News - Alert) Genachowski. A recent study conducted by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF) showed that the U.S. ranks at the bottom of a list of developed countries when it comes to innovative capacity and competitiveness.

During a speech he gave on February 7, Genachowski referred to the study, and noted that, “The study looked at 40 industrial countries and ranked them on a small number of metrics demonstrating innovative capacity and competitiveness – things like IT investment and broadband deployment and adoption. On a snapshot basis, it ranked the U.S. 6th out of the 40 nations. That alone should be a call to action. But it’s not the truly scary part. The study then looked at those same metrics, and rated each country on its rate of change – that is, on its rate of improvement in innovation and competitiveness. On that basis it ranked the U.S. 40th out of 40.”