President Obama included the information superhighway in his economic stimulus package, saying, “As we renew our schools and highways, we’ll also renew our information superhighway. It is unacceptable that the United States ranks 15th in the world in broadband adoption. Here, in the country that invented the internet, every child should have the chance to get online…. In addition to connecting our libraries and schools to the Internet, we must also ensure that our hospitals are connected to each other through the Internet.”
The $7.2 billion in funding to promote high-speed internet in the stimulus package is just the first step in the Obama administration’s effort to fuel expansion of telecommunications services. “Despite new federal money, the amount is but a fraction of what is needed” to establish the United States in terms of broadband versus other developed countries, said Blair Levin, an adviser to U.S. President Barack Obama on telecom matters during the transition and now an informal adviser.
One public interest group had called for $44 billion to build networks to connect rural and other underserved parts of the U.S. to the Internet to help bridge the digital divide.
But according to the Communication Worker’s of America, a $5 billion increase in broadband investment would directly create 100,000 new jobs in telecom and IT in the year in which the spending occurs.
The current definition of broadband speed in the U.S. is 768 kilobits per second downstream, which is significantly below worldwide standards. SpeedMatters.org says that “Some countries have already established goals of 100 megabits per second (Mbps) both in terms of download and upload speeds. In the US, speeds most often range from 1 to 3 Mbps download and 50-384 Kbps upload. Yet, even these speeds are too slow; for example, 6 Mbps are needed for such important interactive features as videoconferencing.”
[...] nationwide broadband would increase the speed of justice! But as we’ll find out in Part 2, sharing information with [...]