House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi called for expanded broadband access in a speech Tuesday morning at the National Press Club in Washington. "The nationwide deployment of high speed, always-on
broadband and Internet and mobile communications will fuel the development of millions of new jobs in the United States," said Pelosi, according to a statement issued by her office. "Our agenda
guarantees that every American will have affordable access to broadband within five years."
She also invoked the name of Google's Larry Page: "When I suggested to Google co-founder Larry Page
that one of our goals in this agenda was going to be universal broadband in ten years, he said, 'Ten? Why not two?'"
Google has submitted bids to provide the California cities San Francisco and
Mountain View with free Wi-Fi service.
-- Wendy Davis