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A national initiative group, formed of various
entrepreneurs, organizations and venture capitalists, together with FCC
commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, lobbied on Tuesday for making broadband access a national
priority in the U.S.
The initiative is called Internetforeveryone.org
and militates for the national adoption of a plan to bring open, high-speed
Internet connections into every home, at a price all of us can afford.
During the Public Democracy Forum held in New York, members
of the initiative group came to support the broadband adoption among U.S.
citizens.
Big names such as Google (represented by its Chief
Technology Evangelist Vint Cerf), BitTorrent, ACLU, Skype, the Writers Guild of
America and others also joined Internetforeveryone.org.
As the Free Press executive director Josh Silver said on
Tuesday, the initiatives plans to create the largest coalition ever made, with
the purpose of demonstrating policymakers that people want and need an internet
system based on competition, access and innovation.
Jonathan Adelstein pointed out that the current
administration isn’t focusing enough on the matter, but the voice of the
people will be heard in Washington sooner or later.
The initiative will be based a lot on the support of the
public, not only in order to make it a known and debated subject in Washington,
but also to serve the best interests of the people.
The United States currently falls behind other nations,
occupying the 15th place out of 30 countries in terms of broadband adoption
rates, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Despite the ranking, many say the comparison of the U.S.
with other countries, smaller in size and population, and much different in
geography and population spread, isn’t quite a fair one.
However, policies need to be changed, members of the initiative
group have said during the press conference.
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