Experts Link Economy And Broadband Adoption

Forget how and if the Internet should be regulated. If the United States doesn't start reversing economic inequality and improving the nation's education system, Americans won't be able to take advantage of a cutting-edge Internet, experts say.

"I think this country has an education crisis," Michael Powell, former Federal Communications Commission chairman, said at a forum convened by the Internet Innovation Alliance. "You can't be a great knowledge economy empire with a high school dropout rate over 30 percent." Several industry telecom analysts agreed with Powell's sentiment, and added that income disparity is another principle challenge for expanding broadband adoption. "Broadband affordability is a bigger problem than broadband availability," said Craig Moffett, an industry analyst at Sanford Bernstein. "We appear to be hitting a wall of [broadband adoption] penetration at 60 percent that's directly related to affordability," he said. Rebecca Arbogast, telecom analyst at investment firm Stifel Nicolaus, argued that industry won't be able to make investments in broadband infrastructure with a "populous that doesn't have education, jobs, or discretionary income."