Wireless or Wired: The New Digital Divide

In a New York Times op-ed, Susan P. Crawford discusses the growing digital divide as it relates to access to wireless and wired services. She argues that not all types of Internet access are equal. Crawford writes:

Over the last decade, cheap Web access over phone lines brought millions to the Internet. But in recent years the emergence of services like video-on-demand, online medicine and Internet classrooms have redefined the state of the art: they require reliable, truly high-speed connections, the kind available almost exclusively from the nation’s small number of very powerful cable companies. Such access means expensive contracts, which many Americans simply cannot afford. While we still talk about “the” Internet, we increasingly have two separate access marketplaces: high-speed wired and second-class wireless. High-speed access is a superhighway for those who can afford it, while racial minorities and poorer and rural Americans must make do with a bike path…

Read the rest of this article at The Root

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