House Majority Whip James Clyburn to Speak at July 14 Broadband Breakfast Club

House Majority Whip Clyburn, D-S.C., Will Headline July 14 Panel on Role of FCC’s National  Broadband Plan in the Broadband Stimulus

Press Release

WASHINGTON, July 9, 2009 – House Majority Whip James “Jim” Clyburn, D-S.C., has confirmed that he will speak at the Broadband Breakfast Club this upcoming Tuesday, July 14, 2009, hosted by BroadbandCensus.com.  The event will take place at Clyde’s of Gallery Place, beginning at 8 a.m.

Clyburn, a former chair of the House Democratic Caucus, will be speaking on the Federal Communication Commission’s national broadband strategy, and its role in the $7.2 billion federal broadband stimulus.

A full breakfast is available beginning at 8 a.m.; the program will begin shortly after 8:30 a.m.

With the release of the NoFAs for the National Broadband Plan, the current focus of the current Broadband Breakfast Club series is how the broadband stimulus dollars will be spent.

The July 14 event will address the formation of the National Broadband Plan by the Federal Communications Commission, currently underway, and how it will impact federal broadband stimulus spending.

Other confirmed speakers include:

• Paula Boyd, Regulatory Counsel from Microsoft
• Michael Calabrese, Vice President for the New America Foundation
• Barbara Esbin, Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for Communications and Competition Policy, Progress and Freedom Foundation
• Brett Glass, founder of Lariet.net, a wireless internet service provider based in Laramie, Wyoming. Other industry and government officials have been invited to participate.

The event will be moderated by Drew Clark, Editor and Executive Director of BroadbandCensus.com. Clark is a veteran telecom and technology journalist, and he founded BroadbandCensus.com in January 2008 as a means of providing the public with a free and objective resource of the wired and wireless local broadband carriers, grouped by ZIP code, by speed, by competition and by consumer satisfaction.

Telecommunications policy advocates, attorneys, policy-makers and journalists seeking to obtain insights from top officials in Washington can attend the Broadband Breakfast Club, for as little as $45.00, plus a modest registration fee. The events are on the record and open to the public.

For individuals outside of Washington, or whose schedule doesn’t permit attendance in person, archived webcasts of the Broadband Breakfast Club are now available on the BroadbandCensus.com channel on TV Mainstream. One full year of online access to each premium webcast is available for $40.00.

Individuals may elect to attend the Broadband Breakfast Club and subscribe to the BroadbandCensus.com Weekly Report, a premium newsletter packed with the most relevant and actionable news, analysis and insight into the $7.2 billion broadband stimulus, for $100.00.

Introductory subscriptions to BroadbandCensus.com Weekly Report are available at $95.00/month, or $950.00/year. Included within the purchase price is one year of complementary access to each monthly webcast of the Broadband Breakfast Club. Get Four Free Issues of the Weekly Report.

Individuals who register to attend the Broadband Breakfast Club in person will also receive a full year of complementary online access to the webcast.

The registration page for the event is http://broadbandbreakfast.eventbrite.com.

Previous meetings of the Broadband Breakfast Club have included:

The November meeting, “Should Government Funding Be Part of a National Broadband Plan?” featured a discussion with Stan Fendley of Corning, Kyle McSlarrow of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association and telecommunications consultant John Windhausen, Jr.

The December meeting, “How Applications and Broadband Mapping Harness Demand for High-Speed Internet,” featured Geoff Daily, a blogger for App-Rising.com; Susan Fox, a vice president at Walt Disney; Neal Neuberger, executive director of the Institute for e-Health Policy; and Alan Shark, executive director of the Public Technology Institute. Click here for access to this webcast.

The January meeting, “What Will Broadband Do to the Universal Service Fund,” included Jay Driscoll of CTIA – The Wireless Association; Gregory Rohde, former Assistant Secretary of Commerce under President Clinton and executive director of the the E-9-1-1 Institute; Jennifer Schneider, Office of Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Technology and the Internet; and Curt Stamp of the Independent Telephone and Telecommunications Alliance. Click here for access to this webcast.

The February meeting, “The Role of Wireless Frequencies in Widespread Broadband Deployment,” featured Donald C. Brittingham, Assistant Vice President, Wireless/Spectrum Policy, Verizon Communications; Tom DeRiggi, Rapid DSL & Wireless (a local wireless internet service provider); John Kneuer, former Assistant Secretary of Commerce, 2006-2007, John Kneuer Associates; John Muleta, CEO, M2Z Networks; and Steve B. Sharkey, Senior Director, Regulatory and Spectrum Policy, Motorola. Click here for access to this webcast.

The March meeting, “Broadband Competition: Do We Have It, and How Do We Get More of It?” featured Art Brodsky, Communication Director, Public Knowledge; Kathleen Ham, Vice President, Federal Regulatory, T-Mobile USA; Brent Olson, Assistant Vice President, Public Policy, AT&T; Emmett O’Keefe, Director, Federal Public Policy, Amazon.com; andScott Wallsten, Vice President for Research and Senior Fellow, Technology Policy Institute. Click here for access to this webcast.

The April Meeting, “Spending the Stimulus: Can States’ Front-line Experiences Expedite Broadband Deployment?” included Karen Jackson, Office of Telework Promotion and Broadband Assistance, Commonwealth of Virginia; Betty Ann Kane, Chairman, D.C. Public Service Commission; Graham Richard, former Mayor, City of Fort Wayne, Indiana; and Sue A. Suleski, Technology Investment Specialist and Program Manager for the Pennsylvania Broadband Initiative.

The Broadband Breakfast Club: Spending the Broadband Stimulus, is sponsored by the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, the International Broadband Electric Communications, Inc., and the Benton Foundation.