WASHINGTON --- More corners of the country would have high-speed Internet access and existing connections would become much faster under a sweeping proposal to overhaul U.S. broadband policy that is being unveiled today.

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The plan from the Federal Communication Commission is meant to guide the government's strategy on broadband for the next decade and beyond. It reflects the Obama administration's concern that the nation that invented the Internet is in danger of falling behind the development of online applications in other countries that have faster broadband speeds at lower prices.

Yet it's not certain the FCC can find the corporate support and legal clearance to carry out the entire plan.

Already, broadcasters oppose one key element of the proposal, which calls for reclaiming some airwaves from TV stations and auctioning those frequencies to companies that deliver wireless Internet access. The FCC also wants to rewrite telecommunications rules in order to pay for broadband using a federal program that now mainly subsidizes telephone service in poor and rural areas.

Funding could be a question as well. The FCC does not estimate the total cost of the plan and insists its proposals could be paid for by auctioning off slices of the airwaves. But the agency will have to persuade Congress that as much as $20 billion from the airwave auctions be set aside for broadband plans and not get routed to other purposes.

That would come on top of the $7.2 billion for broadband included in the 2009 stimulus bill. The Commerce and Agriculture departments are handing out that money now.

Last year's stimulus bill required the FCC to come up with the broadband plan, which is being delivered to Congress today. The plan argues that high-speed Internet access is critical for economic development, education, health care and other aspects of daily life.

"Broadband is an infrastructure challenge that's very akin to what we've faced in the past with telephones and electricity," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said in an interview.

The proposal sets a goal of connecting 100 million U.S. households to broadband connections of 100 megabits per second -- at least 20 times faster than most home connections now -- by 2020. Faster connections would open the door to new services such as fast-loading, high-definition videos ideal for viewing on big-screen TVs. The FCC also says faster broadband would enable doctors to monitor patients over the Internet and broaden the opportunities for students to take classes online.

The plan calls for every community to have at least one anchor institution, such as a school, library or hospital, that has ultra-high-speed Internet access. The FCC defines that as at least a gigabit per second, or 10 times faster than the 100 megabits per second envisioned for home connections.

The plan is designed to encourage more people to subscribe to broadband. About two-thirds of U.S. households have high-speed Internet access now. Many in the remaining one-third could get broadband but choose not to buy it. The plan calls for increasing adoption rates to more than 90 percent of the population.

One proposal calls for a Digital Literacy Corps to teach people how to use the Internet.