[Paleopsych] IEEE-USA white paper: US prosperity at risk; Gigabit networks should be national priority

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US prosperity at risk; Gigabit networks should be national priority
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-04/ioea-iwp040805.php

    The United States should deploy widespread wired and wireless gigabit
    networks as a national priority, according to a white paper from the
    IEEE-USA Committee on Communications and Information Policy (CCIP).

    "Providing Ubiquitous Gigabit Networks in the United States," issued
    14 March, says that our nation must act promptly to ensure that a new
    generation of broadband networks of gigabit per second speed is
    ubiquitous and available to all. Failure to act will "relegate the
    U.S. telecommunications infrastructure to an inferior competitive
    position" and undermine the future of the U.S. economy.

    "Priority deployment of gigabit networks is essential for the United
    States to maintain its world leadership in the knowledge economy,"
    IEEE Life Fellow and IEEE-USA CCIP member Dr. John Richardson said.
    "Information drives our lives and our prosperity. The problem is that
    current networks aren't fast enough to distribute that information
    properly."

    Digital data rates, or speeds, are typically expressed as megabits per
    second (Mb/s) or gigabits per second (Gb/s). A megabit is one million
    bits; a gigabit is one billion bits. Current broadband networks, such
    as DSL or cable modems, have an asymmetric speed of about 2 Mb/s.
    Gigabit networks are capable of digital rates 50 to 5,000 times as
    fast, with equal upstream and downstream speed. Symmetric speed means
    information can be downloaded and uploaded at the same rate. With
    asymmetric systems, upstream speeds lag behind downstream delivery
    rates.

    Omnipresent U.S. gigabit networks, readily achievable by deploying
    optical fiber and high-speed wireless, would carry numerous benefits.
    These include providing the U.S. economy with superior ability to
    compete globally; stimulating economic activity in digital home
    entertainment; enhancing online education and training; and
    facilitating health care remote diagnosis and consultation
    (telemedicine).

    Congress, the Executive Branch and private-sector initiatives could
    secure these benefits for our nation's global competitiveness and
    quality of life by adopting "principles leading to ubiquitous,
    symmetric gigabit availability as a national priority," according to
    the CCIP white paper
    ([5]http://www.ieeeusa.org/volunteers/committees/ccip/docs/Gigabit-WP.
    pdf). Such principles include regulatory flexibility and encouragement
    of user-owned networks.

    "The key fact of modern telecommunications is the convergence of
    voice, data, image and video into digital bit streams," said
    Richardson, a former chief scientist at the National
    Telecommunications and Information Administration. "We need faster
    networks to carry these bit streams to users. Broadband speed and
    penetration in the United States are pitiful compared to levels in
    Japan and South Korea. This means that U.S. prosperity is at risk
    because it depends, in large part, on fast and easy exchange of
    information."

    IEEE-USA is an organizational unit of the IEEE. It was created in 1973
    to advance the public good and promote the careers and public policy
    interests of the more than 220,000 technology professionals who are
    U.S. members of the IEEE. The IEEE is the world's largest technical
    professional society. For more information, go to
    [6]http://www.ieeeusa.org.