The Case For Universal Broadband in America: Now!

WASHINGTON,
October 10, 2007: The failure to achieve President Bush’s 2004 goal of
universal broadband access to the Internet "in every corner of America
by the year 2007" has cost our nation hundreds of billions of dollars
in added economic development and over a million newly-created
high-paying jobs, according to a report by the nonprofit Center for
Creative Voices in Media.

The Case for Universal Broadband in America: Now! finds that wide swaths of America have no broadband at all, or only "fraudband"
that is so slow, unreliable, expensive and/or consumer-unfriendly that
it cannot bring Americans the benefits of universal broadband that
President Bush cited back in 2004, including:

• Hundreds of Billions of Dollars in New Economic Development


• Over a Million New, High-Paying Jobs


• Increased Homeland Security and Public Safety


• Better Health Care at Lower Cost


• Enhanced Educational Opportunities


• Greater Citizen Participation in Government and Communities


• More Access to – and Participation in – Journalism, Culture and Entertainment.

The
bottom line is that in 2007, America is not even close to deploying
fast, reliable and affordable broadband to all its citizens. Our
federal government must undertake a concerted national effort to deploy
universal, net-neutral broadband comparable to that which deployed
telephone and electric service and built a vast network of
superhighways. The economic, social and cultural benefits to all
Americans of this investment will vastly outweigh its costs. Our nation
will stop falling farther behind our international competitors, secure
our leadership in global technology, enhance our homeland security and
public safety, and provide all of our citizens with the opportunity to
participate in the new, global, networked 21st Century world.

In 2006, leading CEOs and policy innovators launched the Horizon Project
to address critical economic and trade policy issues in America. “From
our work on Horizon, my colleagues and I are very aware of how
America’s deficiency in broadband deployment is costing our economy
hundreds of billions of dollars in economic growth and over a million
high-quality jobs,” said Leo Hindery, Jr., chair of Horizon. “The
Center for Creative Voices in Media has now done a marvelous job of
making the case that universal, net-neutral broadband must become an
immediate national priority.”