News

High speeds could help American workers

Japanese engineers may soon have easy access to high speed Internet in speeds of up to 1.2 gigabits per second. That has Fred White of the ThomasNet Industrial Newsroom worried. Quoting our own Speed Matters report, he notes that even as of October 2006, the Japanese could have high speed Internet connections with 8.5 times the speed but at one-twelfth the cost.
 
In internationally competetive industries where different parties need to transfer massive amounts of information, speed can make a big difference and lagging behind is especially detrimental. For example, the highest Internet speeds American engineers can get is 15 megabits per second for downloads and 1.5 megabits per second for uploading -- Japanese engineers have access to Internet speeds up to 1.2 gigabits per second. From ThomasNet News:

“Probably the greatest detriment to greater investments in more broadband is that Americans don’t viscerally understand the math. When you multiply all the extra minutes required for upload and download times all the engineers, scientists, managers, trainers and shop-floor workers, the product gets significant.”

As ThomasNet Industrial Newsroom points out, CWA's Speed Matters campaign has called for private-public partnerships to encourage the spread of high speed Internet access, paid for by investments though tax incentives, universal-service-fund reform, grants to emergency responders for high-speed Internet and leveraging public monies. The United States has fallen too far behind in high speed Internet access and speed.  It is time for investment in new technologies and creative new plans for high speed Internet growth.

Wanted: High-Speed Internet for Industry (ThomasNet)

International Competition (Speed Matters)

Economic Growth (Speed Matters)