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Broadband Initiatives: Enhancing Lives and Transforming Communities

Why Broadband?

Broadband services are an essential tool in today’s world, with profound impacts for
the ways in which we live, work, and learn. The power of broadband can be adapted
to meet the different needs of diverse populations and expand the boundaries of the
possible across the entire landscape of society, improving health care; opening
educational opportunities; stimulating economic development; forging community and
social bonds; improving communication access for people with disabilities; and
enhancing public safety.

The Alliance for Public Technology (APT), a coalition of individuals and public interest
organizations, has been advancing the need for universal deployment of and access to
broadband networks and services for almost two decades. While there has been
progress in broadband deployment, policy makers and unserved or underserved
sectors of our nation do not fully understand the range and the benefits of broadband
applications. Full and equitable access to broadband will not be realized until there is a
greater awareness of its impact.

This report documents specific examples of communities using high speed broadband
to tackle local problems and maximize available resources. It includes, for example:
students in Iowa who can share a real time learning experience with their peers in
Singapore; expectant mothers in rural Arkansas who have live access to the advanced
prenatal care of sub-specialists in Little Rock; and first responders in our nation’s
capital who have instantaneous access to an unprecedented amount of critical
information to better protect us.

The highlighted programs and applications utilize different platforms and different
speeds. They target diverse audiences. But all share a common need for high-speed
high-capacity networks and they all strive to improve the quality of life for their
constituencies. It is not meant to be an exhaustive accounting of all the ways that
broadband is being used for the public good, but it does provide a sampling of the wide
ranging possibilities, such as:

Peter Backof – The Alliance for Public Technology

Full Report: http://www.apt.org/publications/reports-studies/broadband_initiatives.pdf

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