A call for public investment in North Carolina's high speed Internet
In an insightful Charlotte Observer column, Mary Schulken makes the case for state government investment in North Carolina's last-mile high speed Internet connections.
She references a report released last year by the e-NC Authority -- which was founded in 1999 to boost access to information technology in the state -- that found growth in high speed Internet access has slowed down:
"Major deployment in urban communities is more or less done," said Jane Smith Patterson, executive director. "What we are trying to push for now is broadband expansion into the most underserved areas of our state, which are often rural."
Schulken lists some of the report's findings:
• In four counties -- Jones, Greene, Warren and Gates -- less than 50 percent of the households can obtain access to high speed Internet services.
• In 21 counties, less than 70 percent of the households have access to high-speed Internet. Those counties include Columbus, Duplin, Pamlico and Washington, all in the East, and Cherokee, Macon and Graham, all in the far West. In between, counties such as Chatham and Montgomery have low rates of high-speed connectivity.
Bringing high speed Internet to these communities and others like them will take more than just reliance on the free market. Last-mile connections in rural areas are expensive to build, and there simply isn’t enough profit potential for telecom companies to make the investment. It's essential for the state government to step in and bridge the gap.
It's roads, stupid, but it ought to be broadband (Charlotte Observer)
School technology initiatives must follow the kids home (Speed Matters)
TCGplayer workers rally for livable wages and launch a report on poverty-level wages at the eBay subsidiary
Apple retail workers in Oklahoma City win first collective contract with CWA
Labor and public interest groups defend FCC's broadcast ownership rules promoting competition, diversity, and localism on air