Benton Applauds Administration Efforts to Unleash Spectrum for Wireless Broadband Revolution

On June 28, President Barack Obama signed a presidential memorandum with the aim of freeing for auction some 500 megahertz of spectrum that is now controlled by the federal government and private companies. The directive supports key recommendations of the National Broadband Plan that the Federal Communications Commission sent to Congress in March. The following statement can be attributed to Benton Foundation Chairman and CEO Charles Benton:

"Spectrum is the lifeblood of our economy in an increasingly competitive, always-on, always-connected world. To reach our national goal of universal, affordable broadband access and use, we must transform the National Broadband Plan into new, effective policies. Today's action by President Barack Obama is important for many reasons, but none more so than it shows the National Broadband Plan has the attention of the President and the Administration at the highest levels. Now federal policymakers, including Congress, must do their part in implementing the Plan."

The Benton Foundation is a longtime advocate for a national broadband strategy and is tracking the implementation of the National Broadband Plan at http://www.benton.org/nbp