Wireless Technologies Are An Integral Part of CENIC's Next-Generation Broadband Initiative

Cypress, California (July 2, 2004) — With roughly 97% of the United States classified as rural territory, wireless broadband technologies are essential to President Bush's national goal of affordable access to broadband technology in every corner of America by 2007.

According to Dewayne Hendricks, CEO of the Dandin Group, "The Bush Administration is on the right path in recognizing both the role of wireless technologies to ubiquitous broadband deployment and the need to reform spectrum policy. Wireless bandwidth delivery could very well be the only viable alternative for rural and underserved areas in the years to come. So, we need to begin rapid prototyping next-generation wireless technologies to accelerate their development and commercialization. Moreover, we need to fix the government's spectrum policy, which is stuck in the 20th century, if we want to stimulate the creative entrepreneurial environment envisioned by President Bush," said Hendricks.

"However, if this nation is serious about changing its global ranking in broadband deployment from number 10 to number 1, we can't be deploying contemporary broadband technologies adopted by other countries like Korea. We need to develop and deploy the next generation of wireless technologies," Hendrick's said.

Hendricks is a member of the Federal Communication Commission's Technological Advisory Committee, and the chair of CENIC's One Gigabit or Bust™ Initiative Task Force on Wireless.

The Bush Administration's goal of broadband access throughout the U.S. supports CENIC's vision of one Gigabit to every home, school, and business in California by the end of the decade. One Gigabit is 1,000 times faster than today's DSL or cable technologies. For more information, see the Gartner research report, One Gigabit or Bust™ Initiative: A Broadband Vision for California, which is available at http://www.cenic.org/gb/pubs/gartner/index.htm.

In the creative spirit and the bottoms-up philosophy that created the Internet, CENIC (a non-profit) has formed the One Gigabit or Bust Roundtable which brings together the interests of research, education, commerce, state and local government and the general public to address the issues surrounding the implementation of robust end-to-end broadband capabilities to every education institution, business and home in California. For information about the next meeting of the Roundtable to be held on July 21-22, 2004 in Oakland, California see http://www.cenic.org/gb/events/rt0704/agenda.htm

"We agree with the President's remarks that with the right policy and the right incentives the U.S. can be the global leader in broadband use — instead of being 10th per capita," noted Susan Estrada, Director, One Gigabit or Bust™ Initiative. She continued, "To that end, we urge the President to champion a national broadband policy."

About CENIC

CENIC is a not-for-profit corporation serving the California Institute of Technology, California State University, Stanford University, University of California, University of Southern California, California Community Colleges and the statewide K-12 school system. CENIC’s mission is to facilitate and coordinate the development, deployment and operation of a set of robust multi-tiered advanced network services for this research and education community. More information about CENIC can be found at www.cenic.org.