Tina Smith: “I rise today to recognize my home State of Oregon and the city of Portland. Thanks to the visionary leadership of…”

“I rise today to recognize my home State of Oregon and the city of Portland. Thanks to the visionary leadership of Portland city officials and their plan to ``Unwire Portland,'' the forecast in Portland today is ``overcast, with free broadband access for everyone.'' You see, there is a new cloud covering the city--a Wi-Fi broadband cloud. Residents, businesses, and city officials will be able to access the Internet anywhere under the 134 square mile Wi-Fi cloud, download content as quickly as 1 megabyte per second, and upload at speeds reaching 256 kilobits per second. And they will be able to do it all for free. The Wi-Fi network will not only offer city residents and businesses a new affordable choice for broadband access, but will also improve the efficiency of city government operations. Public safety and other field-based employees will now be able to wirelessly download and upload reports and data from the field. The public / private partnership that was struck by the city to realize this accomplishment perfectly illustrates how municipalities, free of State restrictions, can improve access to broadband opportunities for its citizens while improving city services. The Wi-Fi cloud over Portland also reminds us that the future competitiveness of our country depends upon ubiquitous broadband deployment. Congress must enact legislation that clearly articulates a national broadband policy and provides affordable broadband access for all Americans.”