“Broadband” refers to Internet service with high data transfer speeds that make features like streaming video possible. Broadband isn’t currently available to tens of millions of Americans, and the United States currently lags behind a number of other countries in the cost, availability, and speed of broadband access.
The FCC Commissioners and their staff heard testimony from a number of expert panelists and members of the public about broadband Internet and the digital future. Congressman Doyle is Vice Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet.
I want to thank you Chairman Martin, the Commissioners and your staff for coming to Pittsburgh for today's hearing on broadband and our digital future. I also want to thank Carnegie Mellon University for hosting today’s hearing.
I think it’s important that policymakers get out of Washington, DC, and into the communities that are affected by our decisions. It's why I appreciate Chairman Martin, that you’ve taken the FCC today outside DC's beltway and into our Golden Triangle.
I believe this hearing is important because it allows the FCC to look at several broadband and digital media policy questions from the perspective of a typical American community – how we use the net, how we innovate on it, and how we make sure everyone has access to it.
During the time I’ve had the pleasure of representing the Pittsburgh area in Congress, I’ve been committed to maintaining one of Pittsburgh’s greatest assets – the smart people that grow up here or come from all over the world to learn and work here. I'm proud that Pittsburgh is America’s Most Livable City, a distinction that no other city has ever won twice, and I am dedicated to make sure that the graduates of our world class research institutions have jobs that allow them to stay in Pittsburgh after graduation – either at companies like Intel, Seagate and Google, or by creating their own startups like several of the witnesses here today. I also want to make certain that Pittsburgh has enough to offer them and their families after they punch off the clock.
A word about startups. One of the leaders of internet search before the dot-com bubble burst was Lycos. Lycos started on this campus. But shortly after its inception, the company left for the Boston area, believing that Pittsburgh couldn't accommodate their new business. Today, the panels of witnesses you will hear from will tell a different story, that Pittsburgh is a great place to live and work. But they'll also tell you the challenges facing their businesses are ones they would face no matter where their companies are located.
That's why I believe so strongly in an open internet for everyone: an open internet that allows entrepreneurs to create new products and services; an open internet that allows people to communicate with their neighbors across the street or friends around the world; and an open internet that transforms how government works, better prepares our children, and enables us to compete in a global economy.
The internet is more than the companies that build it. It’s more than the companies that point us where to go on it. It's something that many of us use daily – and those of us who don't fall further behind.
That’s why, as Vice-Chairman of the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet in the House Energy and Commerce Committee, I've been working to develop federal policies that keep the Internet open.
I've also been working to make sure that high speed Internet access is available to everyone. I believe some witnesses today will testify about how important it is to ensure that low-income communities aren't on the wrong side of a new and growing broadband divide, and how they’re currently bridging that divide. Our nation has made a significant commitment to providing universal telephone service, especially to those in rural communities. I believe the time has come for Universal Service 2.0, which addresses the challenges that people in both urban and rural areas face in getting connected to the high speed Internet.
Today you'll hear stories from entrepreneurs, academics, representatives from companies that deliver the internet, and companies that create things you want to see on it – from people who are laying the pipes to people working to get low-income communities on those pipes. And contrary to what we usually hear in Washington, we'll hear from the public – who have so much at stake on these issues, but who are too often ignored in policy discussions in our nation’s capital.
You know, a couple of times in Congress, I’ve mentioned Girl Talk, a Pittsburgh DJ who’s found international success. His mash-ups bring him praise in the pages of Rolling Stone, but his work also brings up some interesting policy questions, like should Internet providers scan what you send on the Net so they can filter and block copyrighted content? If you're a fan of Girl Talk's, and you’re aware he has a new CD called Feed the Animals, the answer had better be no. Girl Talk transforms copyrighted songs into completely new works of art thanks to a well-established carve-out in the law called Fair Use, the same part of the law that allows putting the songs on your CD onto an mp3 player – but internet providers who block copyrighted content aren't likely able to make that distinction. So Girl Talk and his fellow artists could end up being the fair use dolphins caught in the tuna net of digital piracy, so to speak.
Stories like that his and the others we hear today can turn policy debates from the abstract to the concrete. Today's field hearing will be a success if we remember the testimony given here when we make decisions in Washington about our country's digital future.
The beauty of the Internet is that it's chaotic and always evolving. The Internet has the potential to enhance education and health care delivery, promote free speech and the creation of new ideas, mitigate the problems caused by concentration in traditional media, foster innovation and job creation, and spur economic growth.
The examination you conduct today will go to the heart of that promise and the future of the Internet. The decisions you make in the future will determine whether the potential the Internet holds for improving our lives and our society is fully achieved. I urge you to give careful consideration to the testimony of today's witnesses, who know so much about the Internet and how government policies could choke off its promise – or power it up and extend it to everyone.
About the 14th
