Effort To Increase Broadband Access Spurs Debate

Is laying more broadband lines to small towns such as Republic really a good way to stimulate the ailing economy? The idea certainly has its cheerleaders. But it's hard to say if broadband contributes to growth or just correlates with it. John Horrigan of the Pew Internet and American Life Project says there is no reliable national map of where broadband is available. The telecom companies, he says, guard that kind of information closely. It also may be a leap to assume that "if you build it, they will come." According to a Pew survey, only 14 percent of Americans still using dial-up Internet say it's because they can't get broadband where they live. Other factors are more important, such as the price of broadband and the fact that some people just don't want it. Let the wire go where the demand is," says Jim Harper, the technology expert at the Cato Institute. Harper says the government shouldn't be pushing broadband into areas that aren't willing or able to pay for it. In the case of sparsely populated rural areas, he says, the government subsidies might actually get in the way of innovation. "The best thing that could happen in broadband is for there to be additional sources of broadband," Harper says. "Right now, we have cable and DSL as the two big ones. We need some wireless; we need some other platforms. "But those companies are very small — they don't exist yet, in Washington terms — so they aren't going to receive those subsidies," he says.