Thomas Manton: “I rise today to salute the cable television industry for its latest educational initiative to provide elementary and…”

“I rise today to salute the cable television industry for its latest educational initiative to provide elementary and secondary schools across the country with access to the Internet using high speed cable modems. Demonstrating its ongoing commitment to education, the industry is providing this extraordinary service free of charge. Cable modems can provide data transmission up to 1,000 times faster than transmission over ordinary twisted copper phone lines. Information that takes more than one hour to download using a typical modem can be done in just seconds using a cable modem. This high-speed digital access to the information superhighway will provide enormous benefits to our Nation's schoolchildren. As cable rolls out this technology in communities across the country, your local school library will be electronically transformed into the Library of Congress, the National Archives, and a source of unlimited information--and at no cost to the school or the taxpayer. In conclusion, I want to commend the cable industry for its efforts to make certain that America's educational system has the benefit of the most advanced telecommunications technology.”