US Lags in Broadband Impede Economy

America's 42 million low-income residents will only marginally participate in a "knowledge economy" unless Internet access to job training skills is increased, according to Dr. Eileen Applebaum, director of the Center for Women and Work at Rutgers University. At a symposium entitled "Economic Empowerment for Low-Income Workers Through Broadband Training," Applebaum joined other panelists who touted the necessity of an aggressive expansion of U.S. broadband capacity. The United States currently ranks fifteenth in the world, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Broadband measurements assess the rate of speed with which information can be uploaded, transmitted and received. Critical services like telemedicine, for example, which utilize a system's capacity to send and receive large volumes of data, are dependent on the availability of broadband. While corporations and institutions can afford the cost of broadband systems that use fiber optics, satellite, or cable, many Americans still access the Internet through telephone dial-up services at a far lower rate of speed.