Obama Touts ConnectHome Initiative in Oklahoma
President Barack Obama praised the commitments of other stakeholders involved in the ConnectHome initiative he launched this week (see 1507150053), devoted to putting affordable or free broadband in low-income households in 28 communities. “Now, I want to give credit where…
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credit is due,” Obama said Wednesday evening during a speech in Durant, Oklahoma, where one initiative beneficiary -- the Choctaw tribal nation -- is based. “This is not something government does by itself. I’m proud to say that folks around the country are stepping up to do their part. So businesses like Cox are providing low-cost Internet and devices. Best Buy is committing [to] free computer education and technical support so that folks learn how to make the most of the Internet.” A higher percentage of the people in South Korea have access to high-speed broadband than they do in the U.S., Obama said. He framed ConnectHome as a part of a broader administration goal: “So that’s why my administration has made it a priority to connect more Americans to the Internet, and close that digital divide that people have been talking about for 20 years now,” he said. “We’ve invested so far in more than 100,000 miles of network infrastructure; that’s enough to circle the globe four times. We’ve laid a lot of line. We’ve supported community broadband. We’ve championed net neutrality rules to make sure that the Internet providers treat all web traffic equally. And then we launched something called ConnectEd, and this was targeted at making sure that every school was connected and classrooms were connected. And we’re now well on our way to connecting 99 percent of students to high-speed broadband in their classrooms by 2018, and that includes here in Durant.” House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., issued a statement Thursday praising ConnectHome as “an important step.”