By Nicole Walton, Michigan Public Radio Network
MARQUETTE, MI –
President Barack Obama flew into a chilly Marquette on Thursday to talk about his plan to double high-speed wireless internet access for Americans in the next five years.
The President spoke at Northern Michigan University, which offers WiMax, a 4G broadband internet network that covers seven communities in the region. It's the largest such network in the U.S., and NMU is one of the first to deploy it. Mr. Obama says WiMax is a model of how extending wireless to rural areas will spark innovation and grow the economy.
He visited a 100-year-old clothing store in downtown Marquette where online sales now make up most of its revenue.
"You got a downtown department store," he said. Now two-thirds of its sales are online. It can process more than a thousand orders a day, and its work force has more than doubled. So you've got a local business with a global footprint because of technology."
Under Obama's initiative current spectrum owners would be encouraged to sell their access rights. Proceeds from those auctions would be used for wireless research, a nationwide public safety network, and to cut the federal deficit.