[Net-Gold] Are You Rural? Will You Get Broadband...? Maybe Not

[David P. Dillard]

Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2005 11:13:05 EDT
From: BBr...@aol.com
Reply-To: Net-...@yahoogroups.com
To: undisclosed-recipients: ;
Subject: [Net-Gold] Are you rural? Will you get broadband...? Maybe Not


In a message dated 8/17/05 9:04:16 AM, head...@benton.org writes:


> WILL STICKS LICK BROADBAND FIX?

> [Commentary] The sticks are getting shafted when it comes to broadband. The
> Pew Internet and American Life Project study reports that rural users are
> only half as likely as urbanites to use high-speed Internet service, and
> that two thirds of rural dial-up users either don't know of their options
> to get the fast stuff or have checked it out and learned for sure they
> can't get it. There are just too many areas, where cable companies never
> bothered to lay wire and telcos haven't made the "final mile" investment to
> extend broadband to their phone customers. High-speed Internet is quickly
> becoming an essential, just like electricity and phone service. A century
> ago our government pursued a policy of "universal access" to make sure that
> those technologies would be available to all. In that spirit, President
> George W. Bush has set a goal of high-speed Internet access available in
> every home in America by 2007. But where's the beef? "It's one thing to set
> a goal, and another to create policies to make it happen," says Sen. Byron
> Dorgan, a Democrat from North Dakota. "Everybody understands that universal
> access is broken." Sen Dorgan, along with Sen. Gordon Smith of Oregon, is
> sponsoring a bill that would direct up to $500 million from the telephone
> Universal Service Fund to building out broadband in unserved areas. A good
> start, but compared with the highway bill President Bush signed last week
> -- a breathtaking porkfest that designated $286 billion for overpasses,
> museum renovations and bridges to nowhere -- it seems comically modest.

> [SOURCE: Newsday, AUTHOR: Steven Levy]
> http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8938152/site/newsweek/


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