President Announces New School Broadband Effort
Says Apple, Microsoft, Sprint, Verizon, with FCC's Help, are Making Down
Payment on That Effort
By: John Eggerton
Multichannel News
Jan 28 2014 - 10:29pm
http://www.multichannel.com/technology/president-announces-new-school-broadband-effort/147970
In the State of the Union address Tuesday night (Jan. 28), President
Obama announced that with the backing of the FCC, some major telecoms
and edge providers were getting together to help connect 15,000 schools
to high-speed broadband.
"Last year, I also pledged to connect 99 percent of our students to
high-speed broadband over the next four years," he said. "Tonight, I can
announce that with the support of the FCC and companies like Apple,
Microsoft, Sprint, and Verizon, we’ve got a down payment to start
connecting more than 15,000 schools and twenty million students over the
next two years, without adding a dime to the deficit."
In an accompanying fact sheet, the White House said that in the coming
weeks the President would announce "new philanthropic partnerships" with
those and other companies on wired and wireless broadband deployment to
schools.
It also pointed out that the President had announced his ConnectEd
initiative in June, with the goal of connecting 99% of students to
next-generation broadband in five years. The FCC then followed up in
August with a proposal to monitor the E-rate program, the subsidy for
advanced telecommunications to schools, libraries and other anchor
institutions.
"Verizon shares the President’s vision for broadband as a transformative
technology for educators and students, and we look forward to in the
near future discussing how Verizon can help ensure America’s teachers
and students have the tools and skills to succeed in this 21st century
information economy," Verizon said in a statement following the speech.
Not long after the announcement of the new effort, FCC Chairman Tom
Wheeler, who was a tech policy adviser to candidate Obama and President
Obama, released a statement saying the FCC stood with the President on
promoting digital education.
“Harnessing the power of digital technology is central to improving our
education system and our global competitiveness," said Wheeler. "In the
Internet age, every student in America should have access to
state-of-the-art educational tools, which are increasingly interactive,
individualized and bandwidth-intensive. The Federal Communications
Commission shares the President’s commitment to seizing the
opportunities of digital learning, which is why we’ve already launched
an effort to modernize our successful E-Rate program – the nation’s
largest education technology program.
"By applying business-like management practices to E-Rate, we can take
steps this year that will make existing funds go farther to
significantly increase our investment in high-speed broadband
connectivity for schools and libraries for the benefit of our students
and teachers. Together, with my fellow Commissioners, Congress,
educators and other stakeholders, we can ensure that all of America’s
students get a 21st-century education.”
The President also called for more federally funded research for "ideas
and inventions like Google and smartphones, and for patent reform
legislation "that allows our businesses to stay focused on innovation,
not costly, needless litigation."
That was a reference to so-called "patent troll" legislation supporting
a crackdown on meritless cases that discourage innovation.
Notable for its absence was any mention of the state of the network
neutrality rules, which he supported as both candidate and President, or
the NSA data collection issue.
The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) noted the
absence of the latter in no uncertain terms.
“The State of the Union offered President Obama an opportunity to clear
the air on outstanding surveillance issues that were not addressed in
his recent reform speech. Chief among these is the government’s
introduction of vulnerabilities in cryptographic standards and
commercial products. Unfortunately, this did not occur,” said ITIF
senior analyst Daniel Castro. “As long as these questions go unanswered,
U.S. technology companies will face a disadvantage in global markets and
lose market share to foreign competitors. The President has declared
that 2014 should be a year of action. He does not need to wait for
Congress to affirm clearly and unequivocally that the policy of the
United States is to strengthen, not weaken, cyber security.”
_______________________________________________
Medianews mailing list
[email protected]
http://etskywarn.net/mailman/listinfo/medianews_etskywarn.net
