Obama: ‘Today, High Speed Broadband Is Not a Luxury, It’s a Necessity’

“Today, high speed broadband is not a luxury, it’s a necessity. This isn’t just about making it easier to stream Netflix or scroll through your Facebook news feed, although that’s fun. You know, it’s frustrating if you’re waiting for a long time before the thing finally comes up. This is about helping local businesses grow and prosper and compete in a global economy.

It’s about giving the entrepreneur, the small business person on Main Street, a chance to compete with the folks out in Silicon Valley or across the globe. It’s about helping a student access the online courses and employment opportunities that can help her pursue her dreams. And that’s why through the Recovery Act, when I first came into office and we were trying to make sure that we prevented the Great Depression, but also start building some foundations for long-term growth, we built or improved more than 113,000 miles of network infrastructure throughout the country.

 That’s enough to circle the globe more than four times. And we offered tax credits to help spur businesses to expand their networks. We’ve hooked up tens of thousands of schools and libraries and medical facilities and community organizations, and then we launched something we call ConnectED, which trains teachers and spurs private sector innovation and is connecting 99 percent of America’s students to high speed internet. But -- and this is why I’m here -- we’ve still got a lot of work to do.”