[1st-mile-nm] Broadband Implications: Libraries

[Richard Lowenberg]

I'm posting the following NY Times Editorial, not because of the Earthlink
references, but because it mentions libraries as the sole site for Internet
access in many rural communities.   In New Mexico, where the State Library
intends to upgrade network access to many rural community libraies, 'open
access' broadband networking would allow for communities and other state
networking initiatives (telehealth, schools, supercomputing, economic
development) to share network connections, for greater number of applications,
lower costs and win-win benefitting impacts.
rl
------

www.nytimes.com/2008/03/29/opinion/29sat4.html?ex=1364443200&en=b335ef70e03a55b4&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

Editorial
Broadening Broadband

Published: March 29, 2008

The big problem in providing Internet service to rural America is often called
?the last mile? ? the difficulty in reaching the smallest communities and
farthest-flung houses and farms. In cities, that problem might be called ?the
last block? ? the difficulty in reaching every neighborhood, no matter how
poor.

For a while, many American cities, caught up in a tide of technological and
fiscal optimism, promised to try to make Internet coverage available to all by
making it citywide, wireless and low-cost or even free.

That has proved to be harder than it seemed at first. EarthLink, an Internet
provider that was partnering with Philadelphia, has pulled out of a
much-heralded project there, and other service providers are rethinking similar
projects.

EarthLink is calling it a change in strategic direction. What that phrase means,
simply, is where?s the profit? It is a reasonable question. But for the people
who have been left without Internet service as municipal wireless plans have
collapsed, there are no reasonable answers, only an all-too-familiar barrier
between them and the information age.

The neighborhoods that most need low-cost, public wireless service now find
themselves largely dependent on Internet access through public libraries. This
may not sound like a terrible thing, but have you seen what?s happened to the
budgets ? and the operating hours ? of public libraries?

To cities and Internet providers, municipal Wi-Fi looked like an ideal
partnership. Philadelphia gave EarthLink free access to utility poles for
mounting wireless routers. EarthLink promised to build hot spots, offer
low-cost residential service and provide still lower-cost access for the
poorest customers.

The costs of building a network turned out to be higher than expected ? at a
time when prices for private Internet service were dropping. It also hurt, in
Philadelphia?s case, that there was a major change at EarthLink, which went
from being an advocate of municipal Wi-Fi to a company determined to cut costs.

Broadband service is no longer a luxury. It has become a basic part of the
infrastructure of education and democracy. EarthLink should fulfill the
commitments it made. Even in these tough economic times, cities should keep
pushing municipal Wi-Fi and looking for partners and plans that can make it a
reality.


-- 
Richard Lowenberg
1st-Mile Institute
P.O. Box 8001, Santa Fe, NM 87504
505-989-9110;   505-603-5200 cell
rl at 1st-mile.com  www.1st-mile.com


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