The Knight Commission strongly encourages public support of broadband and net neutrality.
The U.S. Government should invest in widespread broadband availability, according to a study published Friday by the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy.
“All Americans should have access to high-speed Internet service wherever and whenever they need it…The Commission thus encourages public support for the development of applications that will make broadband service more attractive,” stated the commission, composed of “17 media, policy and community leaders”, including Google’s Marissa Mayer and former FCC chairman Reed E. Hundt.
The Knight Commission emphasized the growing importance of broadband access, and derided its general lack of adoption and availability. Thirty-seven percent of Americans do not subscribe to home broadband service, and about a third of rural Americans lack any sort of access, said the report.
Combined with slipping literacy standards, it creates what MIT media professor Henry Jenkins calls a “participation gap,” which cuts off opportunities for the less fortunate. The report insists that home computer access increases school enrollment and graduation rates, as well as test scores.
The commission also came out strongly in favor of network neutrality, stating, “The Knight Commission regards the openness of networks as essential to meeting community information needs. Legislators and other policy makers should remain vigilant and committed to maintaining openness.”
If the Obama Administration decides to enact the commission’s recommendations, it wouldn’t be the first time that the federal government had to step in to modernize rural America. Congress passed the Rural Electrification Act in 1935 for exactly that purpose. It was later expanded by congress in 1949 to expand telephone coverage to rural Americans.
Do you think the federal government should work to expand broadband coverage? On one hand, it would cost of a lot of taxpayer money. On the other, it could create desperately-needed jobs in the short term, and prove an invaluable asset in the long-term. Where would the United States be without nearly-universal electricity and telephone access?