Internet Inequity: 19M Americans Lack High-Speed Broadband Access

August 22, 2012 / Latest News

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced during its eighth annual broadband progress report on the state of broadband/Internet access in America, announced that 19 million Americans still do not have access to high-speed broadband above the 3Mbps threshold. However, the report also detailed the advances the progress that is being made, including “LTE deployment by mobile networks.”

The FCC’s report highlights the concerns that 6% of Americans – 19 million – still lack any access to high-speed broadband. FCC further clarified the specific areas of concern:

  • In rural areas, almost one-fourth of the population (in rural areas) – which is 14.5 million Americans – lack access to fixed broadband.
  • In tribal areas, almost one-third of the population (in tribal areas) lacks access to fixed broadband.

As the FCC has pointed out in its report, broadband access is an essential component for jobs, innovation and global competitiveness; which is the primary reason for concern with the areas that need improvement to bring high-speed broadband access to more Americans.

With this annual report, it’s good to remember that the U.S. is far better off than the U.K. when it comes to LTE deployment with respect to carrier networks. In fact, there is literally no 4G LTE coverage in the United Kingdom as of August 2012, however, it is selectively undergoing planning to roll out 4G LTE service in the U.K. in the foreseeable future.

In general, the FCC’s annual report concludes that, with respect to the millions of people in the U.S. that cannot get high-speed broadband access as well as those who have not subscribed to high-speed broadband in areas where they can receive it, the report concludes that broadband is not being deployed in a reasonable and timely fashion. It is likely that some Americans that can receive high-speed Internet access in many parts of America do not subscribe to it because they are not able to afford it.

5 Comments

  1. I think that, as a nation, we have much bigger things to worry about than getting everyone on the Internet at 3Mbps or higher.

    Nearly 50 million Americans live below the poverty line, and 150 million are on government assistance. 250 million don’t pay enough taxes to cover what is spent on them by the government.

    Let’s worry about the things that matter, shall we?

  2. That’s about par for the course.BTW cellphone don’t work here either.No towers for coverage,so we mountain folks are screwed.

  3. Thank you for your comments regarding our article. As a web hosting provider, we report on things related to the industry we’re in – and of course, this article naturally falls within this category.

    I have to agree we have major problems in the U.S. that are very concerning. However, as a web hosting provider, I feel it is relevant to publish the latest findings by the FCC regarding Internet access and use. I am sure there are many, many press outlets across the country that are actively reporting about the problems that are very concerning to a lot of us.

  4. Actually, I feel getting higher speeds (throughout) the U.S., including rural areas is paramount. For one, satellite internet is about 3 times the cost of cable and/or dsl. Two, it will allow many individuals to retain remote employment. Three, it will lower costs, as one will be able to offset their long distance phone charges and of course drop their satellite tv service… Four, rural businesses would have more options as far as merchant services are concerned. Five, have the ability to actually watch videos on online. Six, not have to wait (days) in order to update their systems. In all, it would greatly benefit the masses which are lacking greatly in today’s modern technologies.

  5. Although there may be more pressing problems in the country and the world than broadband access, there are enough people in the world to tackle more than one problem at once. I’ll agree with Karin that broadband access might be more important than it initially seems. Having left my urban lifestyle behind fairly recently, it’s been obvious to me how underrepresented the the rural world is online, and by extension in much of the news media, in politics, and in education. Decent internet access would definitely help those problems.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *