States Step In to Close Broadband Gap

STATES STEP IN TO CLOSE THE BROADBAND GAP
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Corey Boles corey.boles@dowjones.com]
Tired of waiting for the federal government to act on President Bush's promise to make high-speed Internet connections available to every home, a number of states have taken on the task themselves. Kentucky has been so successful -- the state says 95% of its households can now buy broadband service if they want -- that federal lawmakers and regulators want to replicate its program nationwide. Rep. Zack Space (D-OH) recently introduced legislation to provide grants for states to follow Kentucky's lead, and a Senate version of the bill has passed the Commerce Committee. In October, the House Energy and Commerce Committee passed a bill sponsored by Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA) that would compel the Federal Communications Commission to pinpoint where broadband service is available -- and where it isn't. In his campaign for nationwide broadband service, Rep Space has formed the Connecting Appalachia Broadband Task Force, a group of various officials, local leaders and telecom industry representatives to bring broadband to rural Appalachia. "The FCC needs to do more. Our government as a whole needs to recognize the importance of broadband Internet access," he says. "We should be treating broadband with as much importance as we did the electrification of the country in the 1930s." Why the urgency? Rep Space worries that the U.S. hasn't kept pace with other developed countries, and that rural districts like his will lose jobs. The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's most recent ranking of countries' progress in broadband deployment put the U.S. in 15th place out of 30 countries as of December 2006, down from 10th place a year earlier.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119388040866078585.html?mod=todays_us_ma...
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