Former FCC Commissioner and Acting Chair Mignon Clyburn joined competitive carrier trade group INCOMPAS yesterday to promote faster speeds for the Biden Administration’s vision of a broadband infrastructure buildout. Mignon is co-chair, along with INCOMPAS CEO Chip Pickering, a former GOP member of Congress from Mississippi, of the INCOMPAS project called “BroadLand.”
The group is urging Congress to raise the minimum broadband speed for any multibillion-dollar broadband infrastructure initiative. BroadLand says the floor should be at least 100 megabits-per-second for downloads and uploads. “Infrastructure funds should incentivize NEW networks that deliver the fastest speeds and greater bandwidth. Don’t waste money on old and slow,” the group says on its new website.
The focus is on fiber. “Faster speeds are key [to jobs of the future] and we must build a future proof backbone that supports strategies for wired, wireless, satellite, 5G, small cell and fiber that can connect diverse communities large and small,” says Clyburn.
INCOMPAS members Crown Castle and Tilson, as well as Google Fiber, Netflix, FirstLight, Granite and Windstream, are founding members of BroadLand.
Clyburn and Pickering say the effort will encourage federal policy makers to “go big and bold” with broadband infrastructure, while helping partner with state and local officials to speed deployment of faster, competitive internet services that help families in need and attract private investment.
“In a nation that stands for liberty and justice for all, we must have internet for all,” said Mignon Clyburn. “I am excited to join the BroadLand effort and continue my fight for greater broadband access and competition that has proven to lift all boats. Better broadband means faster speeds, lower prices and more ideas and innovation from more people and places.”
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