FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 27, 2007

CONTACT: Linda Paris, 202-365-3343

Statement of Joy Howell, Director of Broadband Changed My Life Campaign, regarding A Report on Internet Speeds in All 50 States

Washington, D.C., June 27, 2007 – “U.S. policymakers cannot afford to hit the snooze button with the results of the Speed Matters Speed Test made public this week by the Communications Workers of America.   

“With average download speeds of 1.9 megabits per second, this report is a wake up call that U.S. consumers are missing a world of innovations enjoyed by other industrialized nations.  The next generation of telemedicine, telecommuting, e-commerce, and e-government depend on an Internet faster than 1.9 mbps.

“This test maps a nation of digital gated communities, increasingly separated by income and geography, a continuation of a digital divide we would all like to bridge.”

---

The Communications Workers of America (CWA) released an innovative new report that is a state-by-state analysis on Internet connection speed.  The report relied on 80,000 people in all 50 states who went to the CWA SpeedMatters.org website to take an Internet speed test and measure how fast their computers can upload and download data. This is the first national survey of actual Internet speeds, and the results show just how the U.S. continues to lag behind other countries.

###

About APT
The Alliance for Public Technology is a nonprofit membership organization based in Washington, D.C., which was founded in 1989 to foster public policies that ensure access to advanced telecommunications technologies for all Americans.