WASHINGTON, February 11, 2010 – Sweden has nabbed the top spot from the United States on a global scorecard that measures nations’ digital connectivity and how it contributes to economic growth.
PHILADELPHIA, Penn., February 3, 2010 – Investment in broadband infrastructure, most believe, is essential to our nation’s future economic health.
In an information economy, the race is to the swift: those who can quickly access more, better information will innovate, communicate, and transact at a far greater rate than those who cannot. That’s how the argument goes. As our nation prepares to invest billions in broadband infrastructure, it appears that “We the People” have accepted that argument.
One nagging question remains: is the argument valid?
WASHINGTON, February 1, 2010 – The United States took the top spot on the 2009 Connectivity Scorecard, a research project linking increased national technological connectivity with socio-economic transformation.
Professor Leonard Waverman of the London Business School and economic consulting firm LECG put together the scorecard focusing on 50 countries using metrics such as national usage, skills and infrastructure.
Waverman found that the United States leads more categories than any other nation – its person computer penetration of businesses is excellent and the nation takes top prize in secure server deployment. However, he found that consumer infrastructure does not score as highly for the United States as its other metrics and its “broadband and 3G penetration are average.”
WASHINGTON, December 22, 2009 – Connected Nation, which bills itself as a national non-profit organization that seeks to expand access to broadband internet, hit the jackpot Tuesday when the government announced it will be receiving more than nine million in funding for broadband mapping work.
“Congress rightly recognized that increasing broadband access and adoption in communities being left behind in the 21st Century economy depends on better data collection and broadband planning,” said Lawrence Strickling, Assistant Secretary of Commerce, and head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, in a statement.
WASHINGTON, December 18, 2009 – The Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies on Friday called on the Federal Communications Commission to request public comment on how public policy can best facilitate the transition of the public switched telephone network to a broadband network.
WASHINGTON, December 18, 2009 – An association representing locally owned and controlled telecommunications cooperatives and commercial companies in rural America sent a letter Friday to members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce urging lawmakers to oppose a recent request by a number of tech companies to ban state regulation of internet protocol-based services.
WASHINGTON, December 17, 2009 – A senior government official said Thursday that the Obama Administration has been looking for innovative ways to use technology for the common good.
WASHINGTON, December 17, 2009 – A number of Democratic lawmakers jumped on the broadband bandwagon Thursday to support the use of federal money to encourage adoption of the technology, while one Republican was quick to criticize the Obama Administration for excessive government spending.
WASHINGTON, December 17, 2009 – Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday that $2 billion will be made available on a rolling basis over the next 75 days to increase broadband penetration across the country. The money is part of the $7.2 billion Congress allocated in January for national broadband investments.
WASHINGTON, December 11, 2009 – The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development updated its broadband statistics Friday to reflect that the number of broadband subscribers in OECD member states increased by 10 percent from June 2008 to June 2009.