I don\u2019t want to talk about the fact that in the United States what we pay for internet connectivity is 2.5 times what a similar service in the UK costs and almost 7 times what we would pay in South Korea or about the fact that our internet is ranked 31st in global speed ratings. <\/p>\n
What I want to talk about briefly is our responsibility to make the best use of the \u201cconnectivity\u201d resources in Tacoma to insure their availability for our hospitals, schools, businesses and the people that are living and working here now and to manage these resources so that they are available for the businesses that we want to grow here in the future. <\/p>\n
The mayors of San Francisco, Ed Lee, and Seattle, Ed Murray, said it in a piece they wrote together earlier this month in the SF Gate.<\/p>\n
\u201cA free Web also serves as the entrepreneurial laboratory for hundreds of new startups that are driving a new piston in America\u2019s economic engine – one creating new jobs and sharpening the country\u2019s competitive edge.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The Electronic Frontier Foundation had more to say about enabling a free web in an article addressing the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Dallas including steps that the Mayors could take to help keep the internet open and available.<\/p>\n
\u201cthere are two things Mayor Lee can do right now to protect the future of our open Internet: strongly support municipal wireless and light up the dark fiber that weaves its way under the city of San Francisco. And other mayors around the country have the same opportunity, if they\u2019ve got the will to take it.\u201d\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
We need to carefully consider these comments and what they might mean to our future here in Tacoma as we work with Click! and the existing unused dark fiber under our roads. <\/p>\n
Please check the links to both of these articles for more information.
\nSFGate article
\nhttp:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/opinion\/openforum\/article\/S-F-Seattle-mayors-call-to-preserve-net-5564818.php?cmpid=twitter-mobile<\/a><\/p>\n