The goal of the workshops will be to promote an open dialogue between the FCC and key constituents on matters important to the National Broadband Plan. Key constituents will include service providers, equipment providers, applications providers, community groups, and other groups that have a stake in the future of broadband. Workshops will consist of meetings held at the FCC. The public will have the opportunity to suggest meeting topics and questions for the workshops. All meetings will be broadcast over the Internet when possible, and archived for viewing at a later time to ensure that everyone has access to the content.

The goal of this workshop is to examine existing and potential uses of broadband technology by public safety entities and ways in which broadband technology can enhance homeland security. The workshop will bring together representatives from the public safety community, government agencies, industry, and academia to discuss interoperability, redundancy, cyber security, 911, and pandemic response, among other issues. The first panel will focus on use of broadband applications by first responders to communicate emergency information and to prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies. This panel will also explore issues relating to interoperability, redundancy, and the cost of providing broadband access to public safety. The second panel will focus on the impact of broadband technology on particular homeland security issues, such as cyber security, pandemics, bioterrorism, and critical infrastructure vulnerabilities. The panel will also examine current and future public safety use of managed IP-networks.