|
Speed Matters On The Internet |
|
Tuesday, 27 February 2007 |
|
How fast is your HOME internet connection? Speed determines how fast you can open a web site, download music or a movie, upload a video to YouTube, play an interactive online game, take a distance learning class, or monitor your medical condition in realtime with your doctor online.
For 50 years, we’ve had a policy of universal telephone service. It’s now time to make sure that every American has affordable high-speed Internet access that is built, maintained, and serviced by skilled union workers. We’ve fallen to 16th in the world in Internet access. We need high-speed networks for economic development, job growth, telemedicine, distance learning, and much more. How fast is your HOME internet connection? You should take the CWA Speed Test at Home to test your own internet connections speed and see what you are paying for. Go to http://www.speedmatters.org. It’s easy, it’s free and it’s fast. Speed Matters: High-Speed Internet for All Campaign? CWA’s Speed Matters campaign aims to encourage our employers to deploy 21st century networks, to ensure the jobs on the new networks are held by union workers and to encourage government to adopt policies to make sure that no one is left behind. Will Speed Matters help protect my job? Telecommunications companies must be able to deliver highspeed Internet and video to compete. Verizon's FIOS and AT&T's U-Verse networks are 10 to 50 times faster than today's DSL and cable modems. With these high-speed networks, our jobs will be more secure. First, we have to join together to make sure that the jobs on the new networks are Union jobs. Second, Verizon and AT&T aren’t deploying high-speed networks everywhere, nor are all telephone companies building high-speed networks. Rural and poor neighborhoods are being left out. Verizon, for example, wants to sell its rural lines in New England and elsewhere, leaving those areas without 21st century Internet. Qwest, Embarq, CenturyTel, Citizens and Windstream haven't fully committed to building truly high-speed networks. We need government policies to make sure the richest country in the world has highspeed Internet for all. Why do high-speed Internet? We need it to promote job security. The future of the wire to the home will be high-speed data. Public policies must encourage investment. This means government rules must let the telephone companies provide video more readily to encourage the investment in our infrastructure and keep good jobs in our communities. Every American needs access to a powerful, nationwide high speed network. CWA is fighting for the public policy to make that happen and fighting for the jobs that will create and maintain that network. Over the next year we’re going to ask you to participate in a number of activities to make high speed Internet for all a reality. Start by finding out how your own HOME connection measures up. Take the Speed Test. Go to http://www.speedmatters.org. It’s easy, it’s free and it’s fast |
