CWA Gears Up 'Speed Matters' Campaign

CWA released a major policy paper as part of its "Speed Matters" initiative, a strategic campaign to help bring affordable, high speed Internet to all Americans and help create quality, 21st century jobs.

In a teleconference with reporters, CWA President Larry Cohen stressed that the failure of the United States to develop a national policy supporting true high speed Internet access means that consumers are trapped in a 20th century model while much of the world is building on the advances of the 21st century.

Cohen cited Japan, where a public policy of accelerated depreciation for high speed Internet investment and low interest loans to promote build-out have resulted in 80 percent of the population — including those living in rural areas — having access to true high speed Internet through fiber to the home.

"At least 15 countries in a few short years have gone years and years ahead of where we'll ever get unless we develop an aggressive policy to compete," he said. The U.S. spends less on telecommunications as a percentage of national income than our major competitors, he said, adding that, we're missing a real opportunity to create a stronger economy and the 21st century jobs that our nation needs.

CWA's Speed Matters campaign calls for the build-out of universal high speed access in the United States and stresses that the Federal Communications Commission should immediately upgrade its definition of high speed from the current 200 kilobits per second to 2 megabits per second downstream and 1 megabit per second upstream, with additional benchmarks for future years.

The latest policy paper is available at www.speedmatters.org, along with other news and information. Consumers also can take a speed test to measure their connection speed and compare it to their state's average and other countries. It's followed by a link to Congress to press elected officials to adopt a national high-speed internet policy.