GOP gains won't distract focus from broadband adoption, One Economy says

Republicans gains might not put a damper on efforts to create government-funded programs encouraging people to adopt broadband Internet access, according to Ken Eisner, the managing director at One Economy, a non-profit aimed at bringing technology to people who are underserved.

"Both parties can find areas of consensus on this," Eisner said. "It will also return economic benefits to companies in terms of uptake and usage over their broadband lines." Adoption is one of the rare issues in the broadband landscape that has considerable bipartisan consensus, Eisner said. In contrast, Republicans are skeptical of funding broadband deployment. Critics contend that building broadband lines is much more efficient when the private sector invests in the task, rather than the government, he said. But people can come together on adoption, he said. The parties agree there is some need to increase adoption rates through digital literacy programs and by migrating federal telecom subsidies to pay broadband bills instead of phone service, he said. He also emphasized that adoption is a pressing issue and many people have not begun using the technology.