"As far as I can tell, we're the only country on the face of God's green earth that doesn't have a broadband strategy."
-- Commissioner Copps "Summit Focuses on Broadband Growth in W.Va." WTRF-TV, Wheeling (WF). Paul Darst
http://www.wtrf.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=14328
"America's record in expanding broadband communication is so poor that it should be viewed as an outrage by every consumer and businessperson in the country. Too few of us have broadband connections, and those who do pay too much for service that is too slow.
"We need a broadband strategy for America. Other industrialized countries have developed national broadband strategies. In the United States we have a campaign promise of universal broadband access by 2007, but no strategy for getting there. With less than two months to go, we aren't even within shouting distance.
"The solution to our broadband crisis must ultimately involve public-private initiatives like those that built the railroad, highway and telephone systems. Combined with an overhaul of our universal service system to make sure it is focusing on the needs of broadband, this represents our best chance at recapturing our leadership position.
It seems plain enough that our present policies aren't working. Inattention and muddling through may be the path of least resistance, but they should not and must not represent our national policy on this critical issue."
-- Commissioner Michael Copps "America's Internet Disconnect" Washington Post. November 8, 2006.
"I am really worried that we can go into 21st century with such a divide, with all of these wonderful services. If we don't get broadband out there, kids can't compete. And it has a business application, too. What if you want to start a business in a rural area and you don't have high-speed Internet, but your competitors do?"
-- FCC Commissioner Michael Copps at Senate Commerce Committee hearing Feb 1, 2007 as reported by TelecomWeb -- "Senate Committee Grills Full FCC Panel"
"I think the FCC's and the nation's greatest challenge is to bring the wonders of modern technology to all our people: to the inner city and to our distant farms and ranches, to tribal lands, to our disabled and challenged fellow citizens, to our poorest citizens and our oldest citizens. We simply cannot afford to leave anyone behind without leaving America behind. Right now, your country and mine is 21st in the world when it comes to broadband digital opportunity and that's according to the International Telecommunications Union. How can we expect a generation of students to enter the digital classroom at dial-up speed? How will they compete as individuals? But wait a minute -- we're paying a business, competitive cost, too. Fewer Americans with broadband means a smaller Internet marketplace and a glass ceiling over the productivity of small businesses and entrepreneurs in too much of our great land. But, then again, what did we expect without having a real broadband strategy?
"I hope this Congress will push the FCC to be a more proactive participant in developing a strategy and developing solutions. Have us gather better statistics about our country's woeful broadband situation. Set our agency's talented engineers and policy gurus to work writing reports and teeing up options for you to consider about how we can inject life back into our nation's stagnant broadband market. Keep our feet to the fire to encourage innovation, competition and the provision of advanced telecommunications to all our people. The present situation is far too grave to allow the great technological resources of the FCC to be anything less than 100% engaged."
-- Commissioner Michael Copps Feb 1, 2007. Testimony before Senate Commerce Committee
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-270194A1.doc
"If we are going to ensure that no community, no citizen, is left behind by lack of access to basic or advanced telecommunications in this new digital age, we need to think anew, adjust our policies and craft the proper incentives. We must include these new opportunity-creating technologies as part of our Universal Service Program. In plainer English, it is time to bring broadband into the Universal Service System. We must also update and broaden the USF contribution base. We must make sure funds are distributed with maximum equity among consumers, areas and technologies. And we must recognize that the economics of non-rural, rural and truly remote service areas are fundamentally different.
"Permit me to begin by emphasizing the importance of a USF commitment to broadband because this is, far and away, the most meaningful step we can take to create opportunity for our citizens, to ensure community development in every area of our country and to keep our nation competitive in the global economy. Broadband is the great network and infrastructure challenge of our time. If you double back through the years of this nation’s history, you will find that just about every formative era has had its own major infrastructure challenge. Go back to the very beginning as settlers pushed into the frontier and populated new lands. Their infrastructure challenge was to develop ways to deliver their produce and products to increasingly far-away markets. So they found ways to build roads and turnpikes and canals and ports to meet that challenge. Later, as we industrialized, the need was to lay a railway grid, first across regions and then across the country, climaxed by the great saga of the Transcontinental railroads as we became a continental power following the Civil War. Closer to our own era, in the Eisenhower years as suburbs grew and our demography changed, came the Interstate Highway System binding the country more closely together. We saw it in communications, too, in extending telephone service to rural America with the Rural Electrification amendments under Harry Truman and with the Universal Service Fund that we are gathered here to discuss this morning. In all of these infrastructure build-outs, there was a critical role for government, business and local community organizations to work together toward a great national objective. This is really the American Story. It’s how we built our nation and how we grew. It is, I believe, the only way we will continue to grow it.
"From where I sit, broadband networks are the canals and railroads and highways of the digital age. Our future will be in significant measure decided by how we master, or fail to master, advanced communications networks and how quickly and how well we build out broadband connectivity.
So first we need to look at what part Universal Service should play in meeting this great infrastructure challenge."
-- FCC Commissioner Michael Copps in testimony before Senate Commerce Committee March 1, 2007
(http://commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Hearings.Testimon...)
"We must upgrade our communications infrastructure in every corner of this country. And we must do a better job of making innovative communications technologies more widely available and affordable to everyone. All of our citizens should have the opportunity to maximize their potential through communications, no matter where they live or what challenges they face. To promote the communications needs of everyone in this country, we should focus on improving access to broadband services, modernizing universal service, and protecting diversity, competition, and localism in our media."
-- Jonathan Adelstein Feb 1, 2007. Testimony before Senate Commerce Committee
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-270200A1.doc
"We need to undertake a multipronged approach, because we have terrible data. We need a national broadband strategy with thresholds, and we need to create incentives for innovation and competition. We also need to commit some USF (funding) for this as well."
-- Adelstein at Senate Commerce Committee hearing Feb 1, 2007 as reported by TelecomWeb -- "Senate Committee Grills Full FCC Panel"
http://www.telecomweb.com/tnd/21518.html
"This is akin to the building of the railroads ... or the Interstate highway system. The building of broadband will allow people in this state to be in touch with other countries. ... It opens up the entire world."
-- "Summit Focuses on Broadband Growth in W.Va." WTRF-TV, Wheeling (WF). Paul Darst. September 21, 2006 (see http://www.wtrf.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=14328)
"As our nation moves farther into the digital age, there are several important issues that Congress should consider which will dramatically affect the way millions of Americans communicate. These issues include reforming universal service, easing the transition to digital television, and encouraging Internet access."
-- "Communications issues still need Congress’s attention" The Hill, Feb 6, 2007 (see http://thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/020607/sf_steve...)
"The President set an ambitious goal for universal broadband access by 2007, yet, like many Administration initiatives, offered no specific benchmarks or policy directives. The lack of an up-to-date, comprehensive strategy forces the communications sector to muddle through a landscape marked by disparate government programs. 2007 has arrived and it remains unclear who, if anyone, in the Administration is taking up the mantle of assuring affordable broadband access to those who most need it. We should have a comprehensive national strategy to ensure affordable and robust broadband for all Americans. For the United States to maintain its global leadership in the information economy, it's time for a better broadband policy that serves all Americans."
-- Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) "Affordable broadband for everyone" The Hill, Feb 6, 2007 (see http://thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/020607/sf_dinge...)
"History shows that the United States is fully capable of being the world leader in technology, but our preeminence is threatened. We must devise a strategy to regain and retain our edge...
"We must engage in a concerted effort to regain our place as the world leader in communications services. There is no one answer, but we must make improving access to broadband services, modernizing universal service, funding federal research in new communications and information technology, and promoting competition national priorities.
"This Congress, the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation will push forward to identify barriers to, and opportunities for, forward progress in these areas. We plan to hold a series of hearings at which we will ask experts, regulators, and representatives of the public to provide us their insights and recommendations, so that we may develop a comprehensive strategy for broadband innovation and access for all.
"Policymakers and companies must work together to find the answers to ensure America is competitive in the world."
-- We can be the world leader in communications technology, The Hill, Feb 6, 2007 (see http://thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/020607/sf_inouy...)
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