US Ignite Program Aims to Develop Ultra-Fast Broadband Networks

  • The U.S. government has partnered with private corporations to create ultra high-speed broadband networks. The program is called US Ignite and invites private developers to build applications to advance the economy.
  • A White House press release explains that it envisions the program as “a test-bed for designing and deploying next-generation applications to support national priorities areas such as education, healthcare, energy, and advanced manufacturing.”
  • “US Ignite will challenge students, start-ups, and industry leaders to create a new generation of applications and services that meet the needs of local communities while creating a broad range of job and investment opportunities,” adds the release.
  • The network will expand to 25 cities in the next five years, says the White House, and aims to advance network speeds to 1 gigabit-per-second. This represents speeds 100 times faster than today’s Internet.
  • “In the 1970s, many doubted there were uses for even 50 kilobit-per-second Internet,” explains Bob Metcalfe, who co-invented Ethernet. “But soon application explorers came up with remote login, file transfer, and email. Pioneers have since found new worlds in telephony, television, publishing, commerce and social interactivity. Today, while investing in gigabit generations of Internet, we are again sending out our application explorers.”

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