President To Speak On Value Of Broadband

President Barack Obama said Friday he would travel to Michigan next week to talk about the importance of broadband access.

Reclaiming spectrum and using it to deliver wireless broadband to 98% of the country is one of the key elements of the President's innovation agenda, according to a White House report released Friday. He also talked about the wireless initiative in his State of the Union Speech Jan. 25.

The President has mentioned the initiative in a couple of speeches in the past couple of weeks, but the White House signaled that would be the focus of next week's visit.

"On Thursday, Feb. 10, President Obama will travel to Marquette, Michigan, where local businesses have been able to grow as a result of broadband access, with particular benefit in exporting goods to new markets around the world," the White House announced.

The Vice President has long talked up the value of broadband as a spur to economic competitiveness and access to markets and was on hand when the first grants were announced as part of the president's economic stimulus package, which included billions for broadband deployment, adoption and education..

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.