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A project of Common Dreams

For Immediate Release
Contact:

Liz Rose, Communications Director, 202-355-3559

Google's Announcement of High-Speed Broadband Experiment Should Inspire FCC to Think Big

Responding to Google's announcement today of a plan to build new, ultra high-speed broadband networks, Ben Scott, policy director for Free Press, said:

"Google's proposed experiment with building ultra-fast, open
broadband pipelines in a handful of communities follows a trail already
blazed by Verizon's FiOS network, which has fiber optic cables capable
of speeds comparable to what Google proposes. The FCC should use these
examples to set forward-looking goals for the future of broadband
throughout the United States.

WASHINGTON

Responding to Google's announcement today of a plan to build new, ultra high-speed broadband networks, Ben Scott, policy director for Free Press, said:

"Google's proposed experiment with building ultra-fast, open
broadband pipelines in a handful of communities follows a trail already
blazed by Verizon's FiOS network, which has fiber optic cables capable
of speeds comparable to what Google proposes. The FCC should use these
examples to set forward-looking goals for the future of broadband
throughout the United States. In the coming years, all Americans should
have access to a world-class broadband network. The world's most
advanced broadband nations already have networks capable of these
speeds -- we are years behind in the race to create a national
infrastructure that can support the next generation of e-commerce,
e-government, health and education technologies, and much more.

"The FCC should adopt these high standards and aspirational goals
when it delivers the National Broadband Plan to Congress in March. The
National Broadband Plan should chart a course to guide the United
States in the near term to universal deployment and adoption of
high-capacity Internet infrastructure, and in the long term toward 1
gigabit broadband and beyond."

For more information, go to: www.freepress.net

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