U.S. Broadband Coalition to Release Report on National Broadband Strategy

WASHINGTON, — The U.S. Broadband Coalition, an unprecedented coalition of more than 160 organizations pressing for a comprehensive national broadband strategy, announced the release of its report at the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday, September 24, 2009.

The non-profit coalition includes large and small communications providers of all kinds, high technology companies, manufacturers, labor unions, educational institutions, utilities, consumer groups, public interest organizations, units of state and local government, and many other stakeholders committed to advancing America’s broadband future.

The “Report of the U.S. Broadband Coalition on a National Broadband Strategy,” to be released at 9 a.m. in the main commission meeting room of the FCC, is the culmination of more than 18 months of effort to coalesce a wide variety of views into a single document.

The report could serve as a building block for the Federal Communications Commission’s National Broadband Task Force. The agency is charged with preparing a national broadband plan by February 17, 2009.

Blair Levin, director of the FCC’s National Broadband Task Force, will welcome the group.

The coalition sought consensus on the need for, and details of, the national broadband plan.

“At the time we began this effort in early 2008, very few groups were calling for a national broadband strategy,” reads the report. “Many of the current members of the Coalition were not convinced that such a strategy was necessary, and those that were did not necessarily agree on its basic elements.”

The 49-page report unveiled on Thursday includes concrete suggestions on the opportunities that universal broadband creates for America and the goals of a national broadband plan.

It also includes policy options to stimulate adoption and use of high-speed internet services, enhance availability, and foster accountability and measure progress.

“We’ve come a long way in the last 18 months, and there’s no limit to what we can achieve if we continue to talk to each other in a spirit of common purpose and mutual respect,” said Jim Baller, President of the U.S. Broadband Coalition and Senior Principal of the Baller Herbst Law Group.

“As a nation, we have a history of investing in our basic infrastructure: railroads, highways, telephone, and electricity,” said Ken Peres, Vice President of the U.S. Broadband Coalition, and President of the Alliance for Public Technology and Economist with the Communications Workers of America. “Now it is the 21st Century, and our basic infrastructure is broadband.” – U.S. Broadband Coalition