Broadband Adoption Efforts Must Eliminate "Access Barrier"

The National Urban League, National Council of La Raza, the Asian American Justice Center, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, and the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council released a joint study which finds that broadband adoption efforts need more money and more data. The report argues that the $250 million set aside for adoption in the economic stimulus package should be a floor not a ceiling. Among the barriers, the report says, are a lack of understanding of the benefits of broadband, lack of technical knowledge and training ("digital literacy"), dearth of relevant content, language barriers, privacy concerns and other "culturally-specific" factors. To overcome that, the report says, the government, industry and groups like their own need to "paint a vision" of broadband not as a luxury, but as a necessity for participation in society.