Speed Matters:' CWA's Campaign for High-Speed, Universal Internet Access

The development of true high-speed Internet access for every home and business is essential for American job creation and economic growth in the digital age.

That's the message CWA is taking to lawmakers and regulators in a broad public policy and awareness campaign, Speed Matters. (For a preview of the campaign website, go to www.SpeedMatters.org.) Efforts in Congress this year to spur deployment of high-speed networks and push universal service goals have so far stalled.

CWA is pointing out that the United States, the country that invented the Internet, has fallen from first to 16th in the world in high-speed Internet penetration, lagging behind other nations that have government policies to promote deployment of high-speed networks.

The benefits for economic growth are a core part of CWA's message. Analysts estimate that development of a universal high-speed network would boost the economy by at least $500 billion and create hundreds of thousands of jobs in communications and other sectors.

The key points for CWA's Speed Matters campaign are listed below.

Speed Matters — CWA's Key Principles

• Speed and universality matter for Internet access.
  High-tech innovation, job growth, telemedicine, distance learning, rural development, public safety and e-government require truly high-speed, universal networks.
  
  
• U.S. "high-speed" definition is too slow.
  FCC defines "high-speed" as 200 kilobits per second (kbps) downstream. Government policies should immediately set the "high-speed" definition at 2 megabits per second (mbps) downstream, 1 upstream.
  
  
• U.S. needs a national high-speed-Internet-for-all policy.
  U.S. must adopt policies for universal access and set deployment timetables: 10 mbps down, 1 mbps up by 2010; with new benchmarks set for succeeding years.
  
  
• Open Internet.
  High-speed, high-capacity networks will eliminate bandwidth scarcity and will promote an open Internet. Consumers are entitled to an open Internet allowing them to go where they want when they want. Nothing should be done to degrade or block access to any websites. Reserving proprietary video bandwidth is essential to finance the build-out of high-speed networks.
  
  
• Consumer and worker protections.
  Public policies should support growth of good, career jobs as a key to providing quality service. Government should require public reporting of deployment, actual speed, and price.