Congress Needs to Address the Digital Divide - 2005

[Commentary] The 1996 Telecommunications Act contained many flaws: it helped to spur an increase in media consolidation, it relied far too much on promises of competition, and it was outdated before the ink was dry. But in many ways it embodied an old progressive ideal of policymaking. Namely, several sections of that Act expressed a commitment to discover the facts (about the deployment of advanced technology and the barriers facing small entrepreneurs trying to enter the industry, for example), and to establish policy benefiting all Americans based upon those facts. As Congress reconsiders the Telecommunications Act this fall, it should reassert its commitment to this ideal. Congress should ensure the following: 1) All information and telecommunications providers contribute to the Universal Service Fund; 2) Universal Service support should apply to a dynamic standard of advanced telecommunications services; 3) Universal Service funds should support the deployment, maintenance and training necessary for all Americans to benefit from advanced telecommunications services at home, at school and in health care institutions; and 4) Last, but not least, Congress should insist upon the facts. Congress understood in 1996 that a growing divide between the information haves and have-nots does not only harm the disabled, the poor and the non-white; it weakens the entire country. We need a renewed commitment to closing the digital divide.
[SOURCE: Center for American Progress, AUTHOR: Mark Lloyd]
http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=1097565