Telecom industry brings Connected Nation to North Carolina

Citizens across North Carolina are clamoring for better access to the Internet, but cable and telecom companies say it's too expensive to build service that reaches them. Now the industry has decided it is willing to pay an outside group, Connected Nation, to collect data about who's stuck on dialup, ostensibly to deliver improved service. But critics say the motive is hardly altruistic, charging that cable and telecom companies are more interested in warding off regulators than in bridging the digital divide. But North Carolina already has a state government authority called e-NC Authority doing the same work. In fact, e-NC did some of the first broadband maps in the country in 2001. The organization, which is a state authority housed in the N.C. Rural Economic Development Center, also gives matching incentive grants to encourage the industry to build out to the state's most under-served areas. If the state were to fund Connected Nation, it could serve as a stamp of approval for a group critics say is merely an industry front. It would also signal a lack of confidence in an existing state effort that's garnered rave reviews from across the country.