COMMISSIONER JONATHAN S. ADELSTEIN RESPONDS TO NTIA REPORT ON BROADBAND (0)
Posted 27 February, 2008 in News
Washington, DC – In response to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s release of “Networked Nation: Broadband in America 2007,” Commissioner Adelstein released the following statement:
“With only half of adult Americans participating in the broadband age and U.S. consumers paying far more than citizens in other countries for less bandwidth, this report appears to be missing some key chapters. Noticeably absent is any coherent strategy going forward. This report relies on widely-discredited data in a strained effort that only distracts us from the real work ahead. Rather than bragging about dubious accomplishments, we need to quickly implement a new agenda for expanding our broadband capabilities.
Despite the hard work of broadband providers and the dire need for greater bandwidth, the U.S. continues to slide down virtually every measure of the international rankings of broadband competitiveness. The truth is we’re behind, we are falling further, and we pay more per megabit than many of our global competitors.
Far from declaring victory, we need a national strategy for delivering affordable, truly-high speed Internet connections to all Americans, no matter where they live. Each day we fail to take realistic account of our successes and failures and rise to the broadband challenge means lost opportunities for our communities and our country’s productivity, health, public safety, environment, and economic future.”
FCC COMMISSIONER MICHAEL J. COPPS QUESTIONS NTIA’S BROADBAND REPORT (0)
Posted 27 February, 2008 in News
In response to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NTIA) report entitled “Networked Nation: Broadband in America 2007,” FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps issued the following statement:
“Networked Nation? If the United States were a networked nation consumers would be paying half as much for broadband connections 20 times as fast. That’s what many consumers around the globe get. Instead, NTIA slices and dices bad data (full disclosure: much of it from the FCC) in ever more outlandish ways to reach the conclusion that all is well – don’t worry, be happy. If we spent more time developing strategies for truly ubiquitous and affordable broadband rather than watching our international competitors lap us at every turn, we actually might have something to crow about.
“I take particular issue with the report’s claim that broadband problems exist only in rural and sparsely-populated ‘pockets’ of America. Of course we need to get serious about expanding the availability of broadband to all Americans no matter where they live. But the broadband system we have today is a problem even for those of us who live in densely populated metropolitan areas like Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington D.C. – where customers pay far too much for speeds that are turtle-slow by international standards.
“NTIA is swimming upstream against the tide of independent reports that seem to come out daily finding that when it comes to broadband, we are falling further and further behind. Whether it is the OECD ranking of 15th in the world or the countless other rankings showing even worse results, this is not where the United States needs to be.”