The US needs to give broadband access for all Americans the same
priority as the Eisenhower administration did to building an
interstate highway system.
The report by the Knight
Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a
Democracy said a free flow of information is as vital as clean air,
and that leaders should give it a higher priority.
Considering how much business is done on the internet, the
commission said it is vital to get as many people connected as
possible, according to US
reports.
More than a third of US citizens do not subscribe to broadband
services and many rural communities still do not have broadband
facilities.
The government should provide incentives for service providers
to extend coverage to these areas quickly, said Alberto Ibarguen,
chief executive of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
The commission also called on the government to provide funding
for internet access and media literacy programmes at public
libraries.
US President Barack Obama
said during his
election campaign in November that he would set universal
broadband access as one of his goals.
The UK government has also committed itself to rolling out
universal access to a 2Mbps service to reach the third of the
population still not connected, as recommended in the
Digital Britain report.
But the process is being delayed by uncertainties over the tax
treatment of investments in networks and the availability of
government funding for broadband in remote areas.
The delays may have caused the
UK to slip in world rankings by one place to 25th, behind
Taiwan and Ukraine but ahead of Germany, Spain and Italy.