On the eve of Chattanooga presenting innovative applications that leverage the power of their gigabit network, Former FCC Commissioner Michael Copps lavished praise on that city’s community broadband accomplishments.
“I have nothing but admiration for them because not only have they done a good job, but most of these communities have overcome tremendous obstacles and opposition to do this,” Mr. Copps said, during an interview with the radio talk show Gigabit Nation.
Mr. Copps went on to say, “This is the untold story nationally. It is wonderful that we have this kind of enthusiasm in communities to provide themselves with the telecommunications technology they need in the 21st century. Hats off to folks like the people in Chattanooga who are pushing for it while the national leadership doesn’t push hard enough for making this a reality.”
In response to the question of whether or not communities really need a gigabit per second of speed, Mr. Copps said, “Look at how our information and data needs have grown. If we are serious about putting health records on the Internet, using bandwidth to do something about energy consumption and monitoring, all these other applications, then we’re going to need speed. But it’s going to take commitment of resources and money to do that."
Chattanooga think tank and startup accelerator GigTank conducts Demo Day on Thursday. Over a dozen teams of entrepreneurs and students present their summer’s work developing gig-driven innovations in facial recognition, video, data management, public safety and other applications.
Gigabit Nation is a radio talk show produced and hosted by broadband industry analyst, Craig Settles. The show’s mission is to help public, private and nonprofit organizations tackle important issues getting broadband everywhere it needs to be.
Contact Craig Settles for more details at 510 387-4176 or craig@cjspeaks.com.