Expanding Access
With the United States lagging behind other industrialized nations in broadband Internet service, one public-minded firm proposes a radical plan.
By Ronald Roach
There’s no question that the United States lags behind most industrialized nations in consumer access to broadband Internet service. For many policy makers and activists, this shortfall marks the latest phase in the struggle to overcome the digital divide. As telephone and cable companies dominate the national broadband market, many consumer advocates and digital divide activists contend that they’ve created an industry that is too geographically restricted and expensive for low-income Americans.
“We have lagged behind in transforming to a broadband society,” says U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, D-Hawaii.
“Many consumers have no high-speed access to the Internet, and those who do often must choose from limited options. While alternative broadband platforms may be on the horizon, telephone and cable companies currently control 98 percent of the national broadband market,” Inouye wrote last month in The Hill, an independent Washington, D.C., political newspaper.
To remedy this lack of broadband affordability and availability, one start-up firm — with considerable backing from Silicon Valley companies — has proposed a radical plan to build a nationwide wireless system that would provide essentially free broadband access. Last May, M2Z Networks Inc. asked the Federal Communications Commission to grant it national rights to a
little-used slice of the broadband spectrum. Gaining control of the requested spectrum band would enable M2Z to build a nationwide system that provides wireless Internet access to anyone whose computer is equipped with an access card or access chip.
“We want to provide broadband access to those who the market hasn’t served well. It’s a civil rights issue as we see it,” says John Muleta, the company’s president.
