CWA Demands High Speed Internet for All

High speed Internet networks are the infrastructure of the 21st century.                         

They are the key to economic growth and competitiveness, to new education and training opportunities, to better health through telemedicine and to engaging all Americans — no matter where they live — in public discussions and debate.

That's why CWA and the AFL-CIO are working to make sure that everyone shares in the high speed Internet revolution.

CWA launched the Speed Matters campaign to press for public policies promoting universal, affordable high speed networks. Today, the vital technology has bypassed entire communities, both rural areas and inner cities.

"The United States is still following a 20th century Internet model, while much of the rest of the world has much higher standards," CWA President Larry Cohen said. "Currently we have no public policy at all in the United States governing the build out, speed and accessibility of high speed Internet networks, yet all of the other economic democracies, large and small, do. This puts us at a tremendous disadvantage."

The Speed Matters campaign calls for better data collection by the government to reveal who is and isn't being served. Currently, if a broadband provider serves just one customer within a zip code, the FCC counts the entire area as having broadband access.

CWA also is calling for a new and more reasonable definition of speed. The FCC considers 200 kilobits per second in one direction as high speed. Cohen said that's not only inadequate for basic functions such as streaming video and downloading large files, it makes telemedicine and other Internet advances virtually impossible to access.

In California, Michigan and other states, CWA is supporting video franchising legislation with build-out requirements and time-tables for providing access.

CWA also is fighting Verizon and other companies that are trying to sell landlines in less populated areas, such as northern New England, to small companies that can't afford to build out high speed Internet networks.

In New York, more than 100 members of CWA Local 1103 have volunteered to be part of the local's Speed Matters Action Committee. The SMAC activists are urging people to take CWA's online speed test and writing letters to members of Congress on the critical need for true high speed Internet networks.

CWA's Speed Matters campaign is leading to new alliances pushing for full network rollouts in states that include Kentucky and West Virginia. Go to www.speedmatters.org/cwatest.

"The United States, which has been a leader in innovation, research and development for Internet networks, must now step up and adopt rational public policy if it is to bring the economic and social benefits of high speed Internet to all," Cohen said.