PCCA Journal 3rd Quarter 2013 - page 42

PCCA Journal|3
rd
Quarter 2013
42
News Briefs
White House
Touts Broadband Growth
C
alling a fast, reliable
internet connection “as
essential to the modern
economy as electricity
or phone service,” the
White House released a new report in
June,
Four Years of Broadband Growth
,
that highlights the “tremendous progress
investing in and delivering high-speed
broadband to an unprecedented number
of Americans.” The report also notes
challenges that remain, particularly
with providing broadband at reasonable
speeds to rural America.
The report states, “Since 2009, average
broadband speeds have doubled, and
the percentage of Americans with access
to high-speed wireless broadband has
more than quadrupled (from under 20
percent to over 80 percent). We were the
first nation to deploy next-generation
4G/LTE wireless broadband on such a
scale, which has in turn helped fuel the
demand for the 500 million internet-
connected devices we now own.”
“This technology is doing more than
just enriching lives; it is creating jobs,”
the report says. “With the right incen-
tives in place over the last four years,
companies have invested over $250
billion in broadband infrastructure. The
‘app economy’ that has sprung up in
that same time is estimated to have cre-
ated 500,000 jobs alone. And America is
again leading the world in these innova-
tions; six years ago, only 5 percent of the
world’s phones ran an operating system
that was made in America—today, over
80 percent do.”
The report addressed the nation’s
ever-growing appetite for bandwidth:
“The government commonly defines the
“basic” speed for broadband at 3 Mbps
downstream and 768 kbps upstream
(3Mb/768kb), with some regulatory de-
cisions defining basic service as 4 Mbps
downstream and 1 Mbps upstream.
Nonetheless, we acknowledge that the
country is rapidly reaching the point at
which baseline broadband evaluations
should increase, and might instead begin
at 10 Mbps downstream. This evolv-
ing baseline reflects a growing need for
increased bandwidth as more Americans
use the internet for work and to build
career skills.”
The White House acknowledges that
“there is much more to be done to make
sure we fully unleash the potential of
this revolution,” especially in rural
America. “Of great concern is also the
disparity between urban and rural ac-
cess, as well as uneven distribution of
high-speed access across certain under-
served geographies. Today, while almost
100 percent of urban residents have
access to download speeds of at least 6
Mbps, only about 82 percent of resi-
dents in rural communities can access
those speeds. The disparity is even more
pronounced at higher speeds: almost 88
percent of urban residents have access
to speeds of 25 Mbps, but less than half
that percentage, about 41 percent, have
access to those speeds in rural communi-
ties.... But even considering the higher
costs often associated with provid-
ing broadband to rural areas, limits in
availability should not hold back rural
populations seeking higher-speed, high-
quality internet access.”
“Access to broadband in rural commu-
nities also differs considerably by state.
In 10 states and four territories, 20 per-
cent or less of the rural population has
access to speeds of 25 Mbps. In 15 states
and Puerto Rico, between 21 percent and
40 percent of the rural population has
access to speeds of 25 Mbps. In only 12
states do more than 60 percent of their
rural populations have access to at least
this speed.”
President Obama said in June, “[I]n
an age when the world’s information is a
just click away, it demands that we bring
our schools and libraries into the 21st
century.”
The ConnectED Initiative
On June 6, the President unveiled the
ConnectED initiative, an effort to jump-
start learning technology across the na-
tion’s K-12 schools. The administration
said the initiative “will foster a robust
ecosystem for digital learning, supported
by robust broadband connectivity and
wireless networks connecting 99 percent
of America’s K-12 students.”
Saying that rural communities will ex-
perience the greatest benefits, the White
House said ConnectED “will, within five
years, connect 99 percent of America’s
students, through next-generation broad-
band (at speeds no less than 100Mbps
and with a target of 1Gbps) to, and high-
speed wireless within, their schools and
1...,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41 43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,...56
Powered by FlippingBook