President Bush on Friday said the country must have universal affordable access to broadband technology by 2007, adding it is important to ensure consumers have plenty of choices.
“See, the more choices there are, the more price will go down,” said the president, who spoke Friday in Albuquerque, N.M., mostly about homeownership. “And the more price goes down, the more users there will be. And the more users there will be, the more likely it is America will stay on the competitive edge of world trade.”
The biggest local phone companies competing predominantly with the cable industry have lowered their broadband prices and expanded network coverage over the last year. Still, broadband adoption is far from ubiquitous.
There were 23.5 million high-speed lines connected to homes and businesses as of the first half of 2003, according to FCC data. Cable modem lines remained the predominant broadband technology through the first six months of the year, rising 20 percent from 11.4 million to 13.7 million lines.
Bush said the government does not need to tax access to broadband service.
“The Congress must not tax access to broadband technology if we want to spread it around,” he said.
The president also cited the role broadband can play in the medical field and education.
“The more users there are, the more likely it is people will be able to have interesting new ways to receive doctors’ advices in the home,” he said. “The more affordable broadband technology is, the more innovative we can be with education. It’s important that we stay on the cutting edge of technological change; and one way to do so is to have a bold plan for broadband.”
