Too often, broadband policy is talked about in terms of “access” to providers, as if making a broadband option available is enough. But in a speech at the Free Press conference, FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn made it clear the issue has to include cost as well: In considering all of the factors relating to America’s minority and lower-income citizens, and realizing how hard people work to claw past their monthly bills only to immediately start fretting about next month, we must be vigilant – super-vigilant – about the direction the wireless industry is heading.Many people hope that wireless phones can become an access point for many low-income folks to the Internet, but cost is one of the biggest obstacles to that goal. The Pew Internet & American Life Project has highlighted in a past report that even if high-speed Internet service was available to the entire nation, about one-third of Americans not currently using broadband still wouldn’t because of the expense.To read this opinion piece in The Huffington Post in full, see:
www.huffingtonpost.com/nathan-newman/address-the-digital-divid_b_847516.html
Address the US Digital Divide in the Cost of Wireless
Too often, broadband policy is talked about in terms of “access” to providers, as if making a broadband option available is enough. But in a speech at the Free Press conference, FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn made it clear the issue has to include cost as well: