News Release

WASHINGTON, Sept. 21 – On the eve of One Web Day, public interest groups are urging Congress to support the National Broadband Plan.

Amina Fazlullah, Media and Telecommunications Counsel for U.S. Public Interest Research Group, will be one of several consumer group representatives speaking on Tuesday at a Capitol Hill meeting on the National Broadband Plan currently being developed by the Federal Communications Commission.

“Now that the government is formulating a plan to innovate and extend our nation's networks, it’s critical that officials shape policies with a public interest focus, first and foremost,” said Fazlullah on Monday.

With keynote from Blair Levin, Executive Director of the FCC’s Omnibus Broadband Initiative, the Tuesday meeting will discuss the FCC’s plan for networking the nation and mark the national release of a new report, A Public Interest Internet Agenda, from the Media and Democracy Coalition.

U.S. PIRG is a member of the Coalition, a collaboration of more than 30 organizations united to amplify the voices of the public in debates over media and telecommunications policies.

Tuesday’s Capitol Hill meeting is one of dozens planned around the country for this year’s One Web Day.

“Our coalition report should serve as a guide to regulators diving into the task of building a broadband strategy. To achieve a universal, fair and open broadband infrastructure, the FCC must encourage new industry competition, foster existing state, city and community initiatives, and set strong consumer protective ground rules,” Fazlullah added.

The FCC must create and finalize a National Broadband Plan by the February 2010 deadline created by Congress in the stimulus package.

A Public Interest Internet Agenda has been endorsed by over 40 local and national public interest organizations that work on media and telecommunications issues, and includes sections on: broadband communication as a right; data-driven policy; competition and localism; leveraging public resources, and digital inclusion.

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U.S. PIRG, federation of state Public Interest Research Groups, is a non-profit, non-partisan public interest advocacy organization. For more information visit http://www.uspirg.org Click here for more on our Internet Freedom Campaign