U.S. Chamber Announces New Broadband Policy

U.S. Chamber Announces New Broadband Policy

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The United States Chamber of Commerce's Board of Directors today adopted a new comprehensive broadband policy, marking a key first step in the Chamber's pursuit of an overall national policy on the issue.

"The widespread deployment of broadband has the potential to boost the U.S. economy by tens of billions of dollars each year," said Thomas Donohue, Chamber president and CEO. "Our policy encourages the federal government to make it easier for businesses to create and deploy new services and applications and make that potential a reality."

The Board of Directors approved the measure at their annual fall meetings. The ten-point plan addresses a wide range of legislative and regulatory needs that will lead to greater broadband development, including demand for broadband services, a comprehensive spectrum management strategy, streamlined rights-of-way procedures at the federal, state and local levels and support of technology diversity to ensure national security.

The Chamber brought together a wide range of stakeholders from every sector of the economy in crafting the policy. Representatives from the health care industry, state and local chamber of commerce executives, small business owners, manufacturers, content owners, and telecommunications companies, including wireless and satellite service providers all lent support to the policy. The cooperative effort positions the Chamber to lead the charge for a national broadband policy that will carry the U.S. economy into the future.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world's largest business federation, representing more than three million businesses of every size, sector and region.

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