Broadband access has become vital to life and commerce in America. Individuals, businesses, government agencies, healthcare providers and educational institutions all rely on it as an efficient and effective platform for communicating and conducting business. It has enabled significant prosperity already, and it will be a key element determining our continued competitiveness in the global economy. But while we have seen solid deployment and adoption of broadband in America so far, we still have a long way to go to achieve our goal: universal availability and adoption of truly high speed connections.
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The private sector has made great progress in creating and deploying ever-faster networks, and competitive markets must continue to lead. But there is an important role for government, particularly as we seek to address the gaps in deployment and adoption so often defined by demographics and geography. Similarly, the exponential explosion of digital content means that today’s broadband is tomorrow’s traffic jam, and policy needs to address and accommodate this rising exaflood.
The Internet Innovation Alliance believes it is time for our leaders to offer and embrace a National Broadband Strategy, a coherent set of policies and goals that complement and accelerate the efforts in the marketplace to achieve universal adoption of high speed Internet. Working together, public and private leaders can restore U.S. primacy in Internet technologies and ensure the benefits of true broadband reach all Americans.