Closing the Internet Divide — from allthingsd.com by Patrick Lo
Excerpt:
The closure of the divide will suddenly grant everyone an equal chance to succeed. But the onus is on both the public and private sectors to keep innovating to deliver the low-cost services, connectivity and devices to help close this gap as quickly as possible.
In the United States, the divide is slowly but surely being eradicated. Broadband penetration currently stands around the 70 percent mark with more than 85 million homes having fixed broadband subscriptions. The FCC National Broadband Plan will further extend the connected experience with the goal of taking Internet access to every American by 2020. The implications are huge. Connecting the masses, both domestically and internationally, to the Internet is set to fundamentally improve the quality of people’s lives and close the Internet Divide.