Guest column in Forbes by FCC chair Julius Genachowski posted January 18, 2013

Quote:

“Making sure the U.S. has super-fast, high-capacity, ubiquitous broadband networks delivering speeds measured in gigabits, not megabits isn’t just a matter of consumer convenience, as important as that is. It’s essential to economic growth, job creation and U.S. competitiveness.”

Link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/ciocentral/2013/01/18/faster-sooner-why-the-u-s-needs-gigabit-communities/

Time posted an article about the new book “Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly in the New Guilded Age” by Susan Crawford about need for ultra high speed bandwidth in the US.  (Jan 9, 2013)

Quote:

“Should broadband Internet service be treated as a basic utility in the United States, like electricity, water, and traditional telephone service? That’s the question at the heart of an important and provocative new book by Susan Crawford, a tech policy expert and professor at Cardozo Law School. In Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly in the New Guilded Age, released Tuesday by Yale University Press, Crawford argues that the Internet has replaced traditional phone service as the most essential communications utility in the country, and is now as important as electricity was 100 years ago.”

Read more: http://business.time.com/2013/01/09/is-broadband-internet-access-a-public-utility/