FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday March 17, 12:00 pm ET
CTI and US Connected Communities Association Join to Deploy BB Roundtable Events Across US
SAN JOSE, CA - Building on the success of this
week's California Broadband Roundtable and one convened in Virginia last
December, Digital Village Associates, roundtable facilitator, announced today
at the San Jose Spring VON Conference that it will join with the United States
Connected Communities Association to stage similar events across the United
States this year as an expanded campaign under the Community Telestructure
Initiative (CTI: www.telestructure.com).
These gatherings of state market and policy leaders are primarily focused on finding ways to support community efforts to accelerate build-out of local
broadband infrastructure. "Each community represents a distinct local market
for telecom services given the wide variety of demographics, topologies,
densities, and unique local policy priorities for access, public safety and
economic development," said Digital Village Principal, Don Means. "The purpose
of having these state level broadband roundtables is to provide both political
support and practical advice to encourage local markets to assume a lead role
in the planning and development of their own telecom infrastructures," he
added. "One size most definitely does not fit all."
Encouraged by Governor Schwarzenegger, yesterday's Broadband Roundtable
highlighted the need to support local efforts to deploy infrastructure by
exploring ways to aggregate demand, streamline permitting, promoting
competition and innovation. "Telecommunications is in the midst of a
revolution. Broadband has become central to the needs of families, the health
of our economy and the vitality of our communities," offers California
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
California Senator Dean Florez yesterday announced Senate Bill 1803 that
guarantees cities the freedom to develop their own municipal communication
networks.
"Local governments should not be prevented in law from offering their
citizens the best and most reliable in technology and communications," Florez
said. "Rural schools and hospitals, in particular, stand to benefit
tremendously from the swift exchange of information with leading institutions
in urban centers, including the incredible promise of tele-medicine." Other prominent governors are encouraging this approach. "In accord with
the Community Telestructure Initiative, we encourage every community to take
active responsibility for the design and development of strategies that
promote local broadband deployment. Access to high performance communications
technology is indeed essential to participation in the global knowledge
economy," said former Virginia Governor, Mark Warner after December's
roundtable in Virginia. Hundreds of communities across the country have begun or are planning
projects to enhance local connectivity, but thousands more are mostly waiting
to see what will happen. The technology, economic and policy issues are
complex and daunting, but the need to tackle them urgent. The IEEE-USA and
other studies show the US is not even in the top 15 countries in per capita
broadband penetration and is falling further behind. "Communities have existed too long without referential models that promote
communications infrastructure. Internet access isn't just for a privileged
class of broadband users. Instead, broadband Internet access has become the
blood stream where we learn, do business, entertain ourselves and become
stronger communities," said W. James Hettrick, Chairman of the USCCA and
Director of Information Systems for the City of Loma Linda, California. "It is the express intention of the broadband roundtables to not promote
specific technologies, public policies or even advocate for certain models of
public private cooperation, but rather to build on existing efforts and help
escalate support for cultivation of self directed local markets. It's their
community. It's their market. It's theirs to value and develop together,"
Means added. About the Community Telestructure Initiative (CTI)
CTI is a broad collaboration of public and private interests who pledge to
work jointly and independently to encourage local communities to take
responsibility for the design and development of strategies to foster
broadband deployment. The CTI is supported nationally by TechNet, Public
Technologies Institute, ITAA, IEEE-USA, & EDUCAUSE. The CTI declaration can be
found at www.telestructure.com.
About the United States Connected Communities Association
The US-CCA was founded in 2005 to help communities discover, set, and
realize communications asset goals through models, education, and the use of
standards-based communications infrastructure to benefit future generations.
The US-CCA is a communities-based organization with support from tcommunities,
community associations, and trade/standards organization members across the
United States. More information can be found at us-cca.org.
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