HIGH-SPEED INTERNET POLICY FAILURE New Digital Divide

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HIGH-SPEED INTERNET POLICY FAILURE New Digital Divide

See the report at http://www.consumersunion.org/pub/ddnewbook.pdf

The Bush Administration's Internet policy has resulted in high prices  that
are retarding the spread of high-speed Internet service and widening  the
digital divide, a report released today by the Consumer Federation  of
America and Consumers Union concludes. The report, Expanding the  Digital
Divide and Falling Behind in Broadband, documents the advantages  that
Internet households, particularly those with high-speed access, have  in
conducting economic, social and political activities, and concludes that  it
is critical to aggressively close the digital divide by promoting  universal
service at affordable prices for all. The report notes that in  2001, FCC
Chairman Michael Powell and the National Telecommunications  Information
Administration declared the digital divide a non-problem and  proceeded to
ignore it, adopting policies to eliminate all public interest  obligations
for the advanced telecommunications networks used to provide  high-speed and
voice over Internet service. "Allowing cable and telephone  companies to
squeeze out competition is a double-barreled failure," said Mark  Cooper,
director of research for the Consumer Federation of America.  "Americans pay
ten to twenty times as much as consumers in Korea and Japan  for broadband,
and the U.S. has fallen from third to thirteenth in the world  in the
percentage of citizens with broadband service. Meanwhile, the  percentage of
households that have the Internet at home has stagnated at  about 60
percent." "The digital divide is growing because consumers pay  inflated
prices for the basic services needed to connect to the  high-speed
Internet," said Gene Kimmelman, senior director of public policy  for
Consumers Union. "About half of all households with incomes above  $75,000
have broadband, but half of all households with incomes below $30,000  do
not even have a slow Internet connection at home."

[SOURCE:  Consumers Union Press Release]
(http://www.consumersunion.org/pub//001464.html#more)
 From Benton Headline News


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