Connected Nation broadband legislation would stimulate economy; Markey legislation would stifle it

Connected Nation's new report on the economic impact of pending broadband mapping bills shows how public/private partnerships could accelerate broadband deployment to all Americans and provide an estimated $134b direct economic stimulus per year for the nation.

• The pending broadband mapping legislation adopts a bipartisan consensus approach of public/private partnerships to discover where broadband gaps are and how to stimulate actual broadband deployment to those underserved areas.
  • This mainstream approach is focused on a consensus mainstream goal that has bipartisan mainstream support -- encouraging broadband deployment to all Americans.

Contrast this mainstream legislation to promote universal broadband, with the new fringe net neutrality legislation proposed by House Telecom Chairman Ed Markey.

• Unlike the consensus broadband mapping legislation, which has broad economic benefits and helps underserved and disadvantaged areas, the Markey net neutrality bill favors Silicon Valley special interests over the average American because it is extremely regressive by effectively mandating that average American Internet users heavily subsidize the biggest consumers of Internet bandwidth in the world.
• Moreover, the broadband mapping legislation addresses a real problem and provides real benefits -- in contrast to net neutrality, which is a radical "solution" in search of a non-existent problem. 

Bottomline: The Connected Nation approach shows that Congress can come together on a bipartisan basis to address real and important communications problems. 

• The Markey net neutrality bill, which attracted only two co-sponsors, one of which is retiring, is a highly controversial issue that would hurt average Americans for the benefit of fringe Silicon Valley interests.