One Gigabyte Campaign

America?s telecommunications infrastructure will dictate our ability to be global leaders. Broadband will enable new industries and unlock new possibilities for existing ones. It has already changed how we educate children, deliver health care, manage energy, ensure public safety and engage government. However, America has fallen to 15^th in high-speed internet penetration and 28^th in global speed comparison, making it harder for communities to spur economic growth, create jobs and bridge the digital divide.

Recognizing the importance of broadband, in early 2009, Congress directed the FCC to develop a National Broadband Plan to ensure every American has access to broadband capability and we can once again be global leaders.

Implementation of the National Broadband Plan is essential to give ALL Americans access to the benefits of technology. CWA?s Speed Matters campaign and the Sierra Club have proposed a path to take advantage of this tremendous opportunity by launching the campaign to get one gigabyte of high-speed capacity to community anchor institutions- your schools, hospitals and libraries.

The Campaign

The campaign will work to advance delivery of one gigabyte to the institutions that anchor our communities- our schools, hospitals and public libraries. This approach will guarantee that ALL Americans benefit from the build-out of broadband infrastructure and that we will again be a global leader. Think about this:

Broadband expansion in under-served and rural communities can benefit at-risk students. For example, the Salem-Keizer School District in Oregon re-enrolled more than 50% of their dropouts and at-risk students through an on-line Bridge Program.
Broadband and other communications technologies can eliminate as much as 440 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions from transportation by 2020 by enabling more efficient driving and providing information for policy and planning.
Broadband supports sustainable economic development in rural communities. For example, Blue Valley Meats in Diller, NE has experienced a 30% growth in business, which doubled its employee ranks in the last five years, as a result of building out their website and reaching new consumers.
With an investment in broadband, physicians could maintain and transmit electronic records. This has the potential to generate $371 billion in savings for hospitals and $142 billion for physician practices from safety and efficiency gains alone over 15 years.

Join Our Team

The campaign will launch in the summer of 2010 and will seek to:

Educate advocates at the grassroots level about the benefits of broadband;
Ensure that the benefits of broadband are advanced in the 2010 dialogue; and
Build and strengthen the coalition that will continue advocating for building a world-class broadband infrastructure in 2010 and beyond.

Coalition members will be asked to:

Encourage organization members to participate in campaign activities;
Publicly participate in earned media activities;
Designate a contact to coordinate with the campaign coalition; and
Designate a member or official to serve as a spokesperson for local media.

For more information contact Kate Snyder at [email protected] or 202-434-1166.