Posted by Rekha Murthy at October 18, 2005 10:07 AM in Telecom/Internet.
An excellent article in today's Salon
magazine provides a thorough assessment of the state of broadband
access in the United States. The U.S. continues to fall behind other
countries in broadband penetration. The problem, according to the
article, stems from federal mismanagement of telecom policy and
misrepresentation of the current levels of broadband access and quality.
The digital divide seems to widen with each advance in technology —
even when a technology emerges that could make providing access cheaper
and easier. The divide runs along familiar lines of class and geography
(rural vs. urban), and the line between regions that can attract new
businesses and residents and those that can't. It can also be seen as a
divide between those with better access to news and information and
those without access.
The article also puts in fresh perspective efforts by municipalities — San Francisco
being the most recent and prominent — to provide broadband Internet
services directly to their citizens. Telecom companies claim that this
stifles the competition that can lead to lower prices and better
quality. And yet most Americans have neither.”
