The subject of broadband penetration is one we've been talking about for quite some time here at TAP. We tried our best to push Assemblyman Richard Brodsky's Telecom Reform Act and were supportive overall of Eliot Spitzer's broadband efforts as well. We've tried to point out that any plan to revitalize the upstate economy should absolutely incorporate broadband penetration as a large part of such a plan.
Those who have been reading this site for a while now know that many of us are in rural locales with limited, if any, broadband access. Many community members are on dial up even though they live in more urban settings.
There is a difference between available and accessible. In New York City, practically every household has at least one option for moderate-speed Internet service. Most have two: Time Warner and Cablevision connect to 98% of households and Verizon offers DSL to 87%.
Yet less than half of the city purchases the service. Broadband adoption rates in the Bronx rival those in rural America. Three quarters of low income households throughout the city do not have their own broadband connection. If you are a New Yorker reading this from your home, you are in a privileged minority.
Most efforts to address this problem focus on what's called "demand-side stimulation." That means trying to convince people to purchase a computer and an at-home broadband connection because, well, what crazy person wouldn't purchase an Internet connection when they could? The problem must be in the people who aren't on the Internet, rather than with the Internet itself. Of course, the people who have this idea all use the Internet every day and can't imagine life without it.
If we're going to make the Internet work for the other half of my city - and the other half of the country - we're going to have to ask the people who know the Internet's problems to help design the solutions.
Internet for Everyone has just launched a great series of videos titled "Five Days on the Digital Dirt Road" where they have traveled around the state of North Carolina. They've been talking to folks about their experiences and the many shortcomings of the broadband situation where they live. They are even organizing a Town Hall meeting that folks can attend in person or online.
This is one of the videos from NC, but I'm sure there are plenty of folks from around NY who can realte all too well to this man's experience.
I'd love to see such a campaign here in New York with Town Halls and the input of folks from across the Empire State. Maybe we could light a fire under the policy makers who continue to punt on this ever more important issue.
