CWA: Better Data a Key Step for High Speed Internet

CWA applauded the Broadband Data Improvement Act, introduced last week by Senator Daniel K. Inouye (D-MI), as a significant and necessary step in bringing high speed Internet access to every American.

In order for our country to move forward to ensure that a 21st Century Internet is available for all, we need key information and better data to help us get there, CWA said in a statement, noting Senator Inouye's legislation will greatly improve the quality of that information.  Inouye is chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee.

The measure, S. 1492, incorporates key provisions supported by CWA as part of the union's "Speed Matters" campaign, which calls on Congress to establish a national Internet policy to improve the quality, availability and affordability of high speed broadband service to every community. 

Inouye's measure is a companion measure to the Broadband Census of America Act, introduced in the House of Representatives.

In testimony before the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet on that measure, CWA President Larry Cohen said, "We desperately need a national Internet policy to reverse the fact that our nation, the country that invented the Internet, has fallen to 16th in the world in high-speed Internet penetration."

"Unfortunately, we don't know the full extent of our problem because our data is so poor. We don't know where high-speed networks are deployed, how many households and small businesses connect to the Internet, at what speed, and how much they pay. Without this information, we can't craft good policy solutions. So we continue to fall farther behind," he told the subcommittee.

The Senate bill, in addition to seeking to improve the quality of federal broadband data collection, also encourages state initiatives that promote broadband deployment.