Category: Why It’s Needed

Report of the California Broadband Task Force

As a result of Executive Order S-23-06, the California Broadband Task Force has spent the last year identifying opportunities for—and challenges to—broadband deployment and adoption. The enclosed report represents the culmination of that work,including maps of current broadband availability and speed, recommendations to achieve ubiquitous access and increased use, and a timeframe in which to meet these critical goals.

Japan Eyes 10 Gigs by 2010 as United States Sweats 200 Kbps

In Japan today, the “point of competition” is a gigabit, and by 2010 it will be at 10 gigabits, observed telecommunication lawyer and broadband champion Jim Baller as he kicked off the panel “Broadband Policy Imperatives from the Bottom Up” at the 15th Digital Cities Convention in Washington, DC (December 11-12, 2007).

Benton Foundation: Universal Affordable Broadband for All Americans

For more than 200 years, Americans have approached the future the same way that Huck Finn looked a the bend in the river: even though we didn’t know for sure what was coming next, we always had a sense of limitless possibility about where we were going and where it could take us. Americans, whose ideas have changed the world, are the ones who have been able to see around that bend, catch a glimpse of the future, capture its potential, and ensure that all Americans can partake.

The Case For Universal Broadband in America, Now

Today, more than three years after President Bush made universal broadband “in every corner of America” by 2007 an explicit goal of his administration, millions of Americans are still without broadband access to the Internet. The reality is that in 2007, there are wide swaths of our nation that have no broadband. Other areas have access only to low quality “fraudband” that is so slow, unreliable or unaffordable that it fails to meet other countries’ definitions of broadband, and fails to provide the benefits that President Bush described when he established the goal.

Japan’s Warp-Speed Ride to Internet Future

Americans invented the Internet, but the Japanese are running away with it. Broadband service here is eight to 30 times as fast as in the United States — and considerably cheaper. Japan has the world’s fastest Internet connections, delivering more data at a lower cost than anywhere else, recent studies show.

Bill Moyers talks with FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps

BILL MOYERS: Low-power radio is one piece of the media landscape — a small piece…an alternative, as you’ve just heard, to the handful of corporate giants that have gobbled up practically every media outlet in sight. Those media titans control most of what we hear, see and read and they still want more.

Free Press refutes criticisms of OECD data

On April 23, 2007, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) released their latest semi-annual broadband penetration rankings, which revealed that the United States had fallen to 15th place among the 30-member nations, down from 12th place just six months earlier. This slide continued a downward trend for America, dropping from a high of fourth place in 2001. The OECD data showed other problems for America: Annual U.S. penetration growth ranked 20th, and semi-annual growth was 24th out of 30 countries.