News for and about the Internet2 community

[Lauren Rotman <>]

Internet2 Applauds FCC, Google Broadband Goals

Washington, D.C. – February 18, 2010 - Gary Bachula, Internet2 vice  
president for External Relations provided the following response to  
FCC Chairman Genachowski's statement outlining the FCC's goal of  
delivering 100 megabit-per-second broadband service to 100 million  
American homes by 2020, and Google's recent initiative to provide  
gigabit-per-second service to residences through a system of  
experimental networks.

"The Internet2 community applauds the aggressive broadband goals  
recently announced by Google and FCC Chairman Genachowski as positive  
steps toward realizing the vision of meaningful advanced broadband for  
all citizens. Members of our community, including universities,  
corporations, government agencies and laboratories, state and regional  
research and education networks and other community anchor  
institutions, know firsthand how advanced applications can open doors,  
level playing fields and change lives.

Our community routinely provides at least one gigabit per second  
connections to end users extending a robust platform for the  
development and adoption innovative applications like telepresence,  
telemedicine, distance learning, and high-definition  
videoconferencing. Efforts like those articulated by both the FCC and  
Google hold significant potential to facilitate the adoption of these  
technologies by many more Americans.

As new applications and users continue to demand more and more  
bandwidth, we must also continue to move the broadband bar higher or  
risk falling behind again. Today’s cable modem and DSL broadband  
provide 100 times the capacity of the 56k modems of just fifteen years  
ago.  Will our needs for bandwidth increase 100 times in the next  
fifteen years?  If you look at the experience on university campuses,  
the answer is a resounding yes!”

ABOUT INTERNET2
Internet2 is an advanced networking consortium led by the research and  
education community. An exceptional partnership spanning U.S. and  
international institutions who are leaders in the worlds of research,  
academia, industry and government, Internet2 is developing  
breakthrough cyberinfrastructure technologies that support the most  
exacting applications of today—and spark the most essential  
innovations of tomorrow. Led by its members and focused on their  
current and future networking needs since 1996, Internet2 blends its  
human, IP and optical networks to develop and deploy revolutionary  
Internet technologies. Activating the same partnerships that produced  
today’s Internet, our community is forging the Internet of the future.  
For more information, see http://www.internet2.edu.

Media Contact:
Lauren Rotman

202.331.5345