We need to do everything we can to expand last mile projects that are so critical to linking families and businesses directly to broadband.
Unless we address our unserved broadband challenges in our urban, suburban, and rural areas, we will not have equitable access for all and achieve the economic recovery that we need.
If our country is going to remain competitive on the world stage, then we must start with rebuilding our infrastructure, providing secure and well-paying jobs, making our energy grid cleaner and more reliable, and increasing access to broadband.
Although the FCC has tried to introduce net neutrality rules to avoid abusive practices like favoring your own services over others, they have struggled because there has been more than one court case in which it was asserted the FCC didn’t have the authority to punish ISPs for abusing their control over the broadband channel.
While the United States has never decreed that everyone has a ‘right’ to a telephone, we have come close to this with the notion of ‘universal service’ – the idea that telephone service (and electricity, and now broadband Internet) must be available, even in the most remote regions of the country.
Allowing a handful of broadband carriers to determine what people see and do online would fundamentally undermine the features that have made the Internet such a success, and could permanently compromise the Internet as a platform for the free exchange of information, commerce, and ideas.
There needs to be some regime that is overseeing access to broadband to make sure we have openess; otherwise, there is a risk it won’t be open anymore. We spent quite a bit of time with Verizon policy people in addition to participating in a multilateral discussion with the Federal Communications Commission.
The online video business started in both China and the US around 2005/6, when broadband penetration grew big enough.
The smart way to improve broadband is not to junk the existing network but to make the most of it. It’s to let a competitive market deliver the speeds that people need at an affordable price with government improving infrastructure in the areas where market competition won’t deliver it.
Broadband connections allow us to access more robust types of content, services, and applications – video chat versus email, or live streaming versus chat, for example. Yet if we look beyond our own personal use, we can see that broadband Internet access is not merely a convenience: it is a powerful force for social change.
Fast, cheap, abundant broadband is a fantastic economic accelerator, enabling breakout businesses and kick-starting new industries.
The combination of cheaper and more widespread broadband and increased mobile usage is turning us all into independent viewers.
The hyperloop will be a digital network. That’s why we say we look at transportation as a new form of broadband.
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