Digital Divide Archives
The Pew Internet & American Life Project released the home broadband adoption report of 2009 on Wednesday, June 17, describing this year's successes and shortcomings in broadband penetration.
Speed Matters is happy to see that 63% of adult Americans now have broadband internet connections at home - a 15% increase from last year. Unfortunately, the report shows that there is still a significant digital divide in the United States along racial, income and geographic lines. Read More »
Italy announced a 1.47 billion-euro ($2.06 billion) investment in a national broadband plan that will help overcome the existing digital divide. Italy is currently listed as 22nd in the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development's broadband rankings, only slightly behind the United States' 15th ranking. Currently 13% of Italians have no access to the Internet or insufficient bandwidth, and the majority of those without broadband live in rural areas. The Italian Government's undersecretary for telecommunication, Paolo Romani, said the goal is to provide the entire population access to broadband technology, with a speed of between two and twenty megabits per second, by 2012. Read More »
The U.S. Census Bureau recently released its latest data on Internet usage by home. Only 50.8 percent of American householders have a broadband Internet connection, which makes up 82 percent of Americans with Internet in the home. The remainder connect through dial-up. These findings are consistent with the results of the Pew Internet and American life surveys. The Census Bureau data also showed that significant age, education and racial gaps still prominently exist for broadband usage in the home. Read More »
Verizon Communications is proposing to sell landlines in 14 states to Frontier Communications Corp. - a move that has raised concerns from the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). The sale could be a setback to the push for expanded broadband access to underserved and unserved areas. Without expanded broadband access, stories like that of Gabrielle Ramirez, whose long-undiagnosed disease was identified using telemedicine, would not be possible. Read More »
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) released the first quarterly report on the progress of the national broadband plan stipulated in the economic stimulus package. The report highlights the timetable for the grant application process and the beginning of a 7.2 billion-dollar federal investment in improving America's nationwide broadband services. Read More »
Connect Ohio is facilitating countywide meetings across the state of Ohio with broadband stakeholders to identify needs and priorities for broadband stimulus funding. The meetings bring together representatives from schools, libraries, government, law enforcement, health care, tourism, community groups, and Internet service providers. Read More »
The Texas Department of Agriculture and the Public Utility Commission have announced that, together, they are taking steps to extend broadband Internet access to all Texans. Read More »
The lack of broadband access and adoption in Tennessee - as elsewhere - creates a significant disadvantage for state residents and businesses, as reported in The Tennessean. Read More »
In order to determine who is eligible for grant money from the broadband programs in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, The National Telecommunications and Information Administration is trying to define “broadband,” “unserved” and “underserved.” Read More »
The Communication Workers of America, the Alliance for Digital Equality, and Connected Nation announced a groundbreaking partnership on Monday, April 27, 2009. The three leaders in broadband advocacy will work together to educate "the American consumer about the benefits of new broadband technologies, and retraining the workforce for new job opportunities in a variety of tech-related fields," according to a joint press release. Read More »
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