Gary Bachula, Internet2 vice president for External Relations provided the following response to FCC Chairman Genachowski's statement outlining the FCC's goal of delivering 100 megabit-per-second broadband service to 100 million American homes by 2020, and Google's recent initiative to provide gigabit-per-second service to residences through a system of experimental networks.

"The Internet2 community applauds the aggressive broadband goals recently announced by Google and FCC Chairman Genachowski as positive steps toward realizing the vision of meaningful advanced broadband for all citizens. Members of our community, including universities, corporations, government agencies and laboratories, state and regional research and education networks and other community anchor institutions, know firsthand how advanced applications can open doors, level playing fields and change lives.

Our community routinely provides at least one gigabit per second connections to end users extending a robust platform for the development and adoption innovative applications like telepresence, telemedicine, distance learning, and high-definition videoconferencing. Efforts like those articulated by both the FCC and Google hold significant potential to facilitate the adoption of these technologies by many more Americans.

As new applications and users continue to demand more and more bandwidth, we must also continue to move the broadband bar higher or risk falling behind again. Today’s cable modem and DSL broadband provide 100 times the capacity of the 56k modems of just fifteen years ago.  Will our needs for bandwidth increase 100 times in the next fifteen years?  If you look at the experience on university campuses, the answer is a resounding yes!”