Push Made For More U.S. Broadband Access

A list of highly respected, highly influential Internet guru's joined forces with the commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission Tuesday in renewing calls for the U.S. government to more actively expand broadband service.

The group including Stanford Law School Professor Lawrence Lessig, Columbia professor and author, Timothy Wu, Google VP and Chief Internet Evangelist Vint Cerf, and FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, announced Internetforeveryone.org.

Their goal is "to see that every American gets connected to a fast, affordable, and open Internet." They called it a "basic right" that should be afforded to all Americans.

Broadband advocates have complained that the U.S. government has not stepped up to help make widespread adoption of broadband enough of a priority. For years now U.S. residents have lagged behind those of several nations in purchasing broadband access, according to a recent report by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.

According to the ITIF 2008 Broadband Statistics the United States ranks 15th in the world. A ranking that many people feel is unacceptable. FCC member Jonathan Adelstein said this low adoption of broadband use puts the country at risk in lagging behind globally in other social, educational and economic endeavors.

Internetforeveryone.org is based on four principles, said Josh Silver, executive director of Free Press and one of those who launched the initiative.

Those principles are to provide access to high-speed, world-class communications infrastructure to every home and business in America; to ensure that people have sizable choice of broadband providers; to foster openness so users have the right to freedom of speech and commerce when using the Internet; and to promote innovation so the Internet can create jobs and foster entrepreneurship and economic growth.

InternetforEveryone.org said it will look to national leaders to adopt a plan to deliver high-speed connections to every home.