Crs Report for Congress: Broadband Internet Access and the Digital Divide: Federal Assistance Programs: October 24, 2002 - Rl30719 by Lennard G Kruger (Paperback / softback, 2013)
The digital divide is a term that has been used to characterize a gap between information haves and have-ts, or in other words, between those Americans who use or have access to telecommunications techlogies (e.g., telephones, computers, the Internet) and those who do t. One important subset of the digital divide debate concerns high-speed Internet access, also kwn as broadband. Broadband is provided by a series of techlogies (e.g. cable, telephone wire, satellite, wireless) that give users the ability to send and receive data at volumes and speeds far greater than current Internet access over traditional telephone lines. Broadband techlogies are currently being deployed by the private sector throughout the United States. While the numbers of new broadband subscribers continue to grow, studies conducted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Department of Commerce (DOC), and the Department of Agriculture (USDA) suggest that the rate of broadband deployment in urban and high income areas may be outpacing deployment in rural and low-income areas. Some policymakers, believing that disparities in broadband access across American society could have adverse ecomic and social consequences on those left behind, assert that the federal government should play a more active role to avoid a digital ...