Google vice president and influential Internet co-founder Vincent “Vint” Cerf has this week added his notable voice to a coalition calling for the U.S. government to expand the country’s broadband Internet coverage so that complete nationwide access becomes a reality.
Vint Cerf joins in the call for better US spread of broadband Internet services. Image: Joi Ito/Flickr.
Cerf, who helped craft the Net’s integral protocols during the 1970s, joins alongside other coalition members such as Josh Silver (executive director of the Free Press advocacy group), Jonathan Adelstein (FCC Democrat Commissioner), Michael Winship (president of the Writers Guild of America-East), and Robin Chase (co-founder of the Zipcar rental service) in the group’s ongoing efforts to see Americans provided with universal broadband access.
Looking to gather the weight of public opinion via its new InternetForEveryone.org website, the coalition is intent on raising awareness regarding the lack of countrywide broadband access. It is also hopeful it can help establish lower usage prices through improved competition between service providers in hard-to-reach areas, and also prompt the next U.S. administration into taking necessary action to solve the problem.
“We’re going to create one of the largest coalitions ever assembled, which is going to demonstrate to policymakers that the will of the people is to create an Internet system that has competition, access and that fosters innovation,” outlined Josh Silver at a press conference given on Tuesday at The Personal Democracy Forum in New York. “It’s going to be public interest organizations, individuals and industry [aligned] together.”
It’s worth noting that the United States, the very birthplace of the Internet, currently trails many other nations in terms of providing high-speed Internet access to its population. According to a ranking table compiled by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United States only places 15th in the top 30 countries offering broadband Internet.
During the press conference, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) member Jonathan Adelstein commented that the country’s existing broadband access policy has been eroded by “benign neglect,” and that the (next) government needs to implement a significantly more coherent overhaul.
The coalition has said it will hold numerous hearings across the United States as it attempts to amend the country’s current broadband shortfall, which sees those in more rural regions of the country either cut off completely from high-speed connections or limited to a choice of one when it comes to selecting a broadband Internet service provider (ISP).
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