Why Connecting the Unconnected to Broadband Helps Everyone on the Network

This post was cross-posted from the Broadband & Social Justice Blog.

Logic tells us that the more people who are connected to a network, the more benefits each individual user has. And it's true. This is yet another reason why there is a duty to connect everyone in the nation.

In its National Broadband Plan, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) detailed a bold and inspiring vision for how broadband will likely transform our country. Specifically, this plan outlined a series of "national purposes" for broadband, including ways in which this technology will be used to dramatically alter the delivery of services like healthcare and education.

The value proposition put forth in the Plan is clear: Integrating broadband into commerce and everyday life has tangible benefits.

The initial reason behind increasing broadband adoption was purely economic - broadband has been likened to a spark that can reignite our stagnant economy and empower individual users to realize an array of cost-savings and other benefits. While these aspects of broadband are important to users and the stimulation of the economy, they ignore several other, more fundamental reasons for attempting to bring as many people online as possible.

The notion of "network effects" is the primary reason why the broadband adoption rate in the U.S. must be maximized.

Put simply, "network effects" defines the increase of the value of a communications network in relation to the number of people connected to it. As the "network of networks," the Internet has become the most important and valuable communications tool of our time because it connects so many people. But unlike earlier communications networks, the Internet thrives on the interaction of its users. In other words, the value of the Internet increases not only by the number of people who go online, but also by what people do when they're connected.

Until recently, the Internet was primarily a text-based medium, which limited most people's activities to exchanging e-mails, reading the news, and perhaps maintaining a blog. Surfing the Web in those days was a passive activity, much like talking on the telephone. The advent of broadband, however, has revolutionized how users participate in cyberspace. Social networks, video-based communications, and other advanced applications facilitate - and thrive on - active user engagement.

The new "social Web" depends upon a constant give and take by its users. This dynamic is poised for further change as innovators leverage broadband to deliver services that were previously available only in the analog world. In this new world, informed use of broadband connections by as many users as possible is critical to ensuring that the full "network effect" of this technology is realized. These days, connecting to the Internet via broadband is only the first small step toward reaping the full range of benefits enabled by this technology.

There is a moral obligation to maximize broadband adoption and effective use for the entire U.S. population.

While the broadband adoption rate continues to increase each year, it is shameful that large portions of certain demographic groups remain unconnected to this technology. Almost 60% of families with household incomes of less than $20,000 are without broadband, compared to 94% of those earning over $50,000. African Americans and Hispanics are also disproportionately connected - while 79% of Whites regularly use the Internet, only 69% of African Americans and 59% of Hispanics do.

The inspiring rhetoric included in the FCC's Plan, which heralded the beginning of a national transition to a broadband society, created an obligation for the Commission to do everything in its power to ensure that every American has the same opportunity to get online. Yet, even though the Plan included a detailed analysis of broadband adoption in the United States, little progress has been made toward actually implementing its adoption-related components.

Since the FCC, Congress, and others in the federal government view broadband as the communications medium for the 21st century, these stakeholders have a moral obligation to connect as many people to the Internet via this technology as possible. Doing so will increase the overall value of the network, which by definition will benefit individual users. But if the FCC and other government powers fail to act in a timely manner to address the obvious broadband adoption problems plaguing our nation, then they will contribute to the widening and cementing of an already ominous digital divide.

Why Connecting the Unconnected to Broadband Helps Everyone on the Network (Broadband & Social Justice)

National Broadband Plan (FCC)

National Minority Broadband Adoption (Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies)