Broadband was pioneered in the United States in the late 1980s to more quickly process, store and use information. The resulting applications, such as high-speed Internet access, have increased productivity, created new jobs and changed the way we work, live, play and learn.

However, the U.S. remains the only G8 country without a national broadband plan. Not only is this bad technology policy, it is bad economic policy. I believe that foreign investment and the best jobs in the future will gravitate, in part, to the countries with the best broadband infrastructure. To remain economically vibrant at home and competitive abroad, we need to make affordable broadband access a national priority. President Bush has made some encouraging statements, and has set a goal of universal broadband access by 2007.

Competitive Necessity
Our counterparts in Japan, however, believe that a robust broadband network is as necessary to the national infrastructure as highways or railroads. Japan has set an ambitious target of providing at least 30 million homes with high-speed Internet access by the end of 2005, including at least 10 million ultra-high-speed connections via fiber-to-the-home (FTTH). Japan has advanced its broadband penetration rate from a point where it was approximately 10 years behind the United States to one that exceeds our broadband penetration today. Moreover, Japanese consumers pay significantly less than those in the U.S. for faster and more readily available broadband service.