Turner Addressed Next-Generation Broadband Benefits at Chattanooga Field Hearing: Turner described the centrality of fast, affordable, reliable Internet to community innovation and economic development City of Montrose Director of Innovation and Citizen Engagement Virgil Turner will be featured today in a dynamic field hearing on “Envisioning the Gigabit Future,” alongside mayors and elected officials, business leaders, and local community members delivering substantive testimony on the importance of local leadership and self-determination to advance high speed Internet investment. The hearing was hosted by the Southeast Tennessee Development District and Next Century Cities, a bipartisan, city-to-city initiative dedicated to ensuring the availability of next-generation broadband Internet for all communities. “The City of Montrose is dedicated to finding innovative approaches to ensuring our citizens can avail themselves of the economic and quality-of-life benefits afforded by robust broadband service,” stated Turner. “Montrose voters overwhelmingly agreed, our municipal government should play a role in building a next century network to help drive economic development and innovation in our community,” he continued. Work is currently underway on an implementation planning effort to connect community anchor institutions to this network and on the preliminary engineering necessary to extend this network for the benefit of the entire community. “We seek to bring together the strengths and capabilities of both the private and public sector to meet the growing demand for Internet bandwidth.” “Next Century Cities is working across the country to elevate the voices of those who want to spark innovation and strengthen their communities through next-generation Internet,” said Deb Socia, Executive Director of Next Century Cities. “Our field hearing allowed those voices – from mayors to community stakeholders to renowned business leaders – to be heard today in support of broadband self-determination.” Next Century Cities is an initiative of more than 40 cities nationwide that have joined together in recognition of the importance of leveraging gigabit-level Internet to attract new businesses and create jobs, improve health care and education, and connect residents to new opportunities. Next Century Cities supports communities and their elected leaders, including mayors and other officials, as they seek to ensure that all have access to fast, affordable, and reliable Internet. Today’s field hearing took place in downtown Chattanooga, one of America’s first “gigabit” communities, where high speed Internet investment has yielded real benefits for business, community members, local libraries, and schools. Yet Tennessee is one of approximately twenty states that restrict community broadband choice, prompting Chattanooga and Wilson, North Carolina (another such state), to petition the Federal Communications Commission earlier this year to remove these restrictions so that Chattanooga and Wilson can expand their highly successful networks. Speakers and panelists who presented testimony on the importance of gigabit and next-generation broadband to improve America’s communities included Mayor Andy Berke, Chattanooga, TN; Senator Janice Bowling, Tennessee State Senate (16th District); Mayor Gary Davis, Bradley County, TN; Jonathan Taplin, Director, Annenberg Innovation Lab, University of Southern California; and Tony Perez, Director of the Seattle Office of Cable Communications and President of the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisers.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Nov 2014 15:13:14 +0000