Survey of Online Access Finds Digital Divide

This week’s blog is a Washington Post article entitled “Survey of Online Access Finds Digital Divide.” The article speaks about the “National Broadband Map” formulated by the U.S. Department of Commerce. The findings state that people in urban and rural areas were receiving weak broadband connections. In the District of Columbia only 12% of the residents get connections 25 megabit per second. In neighboring affluent Montgomery County a whopping 98% receive 25 megabits per second. Baltimore was considered the exception with 1/5 of all households below the poverty line, but had 99% of residents with 25 megabits.  One of President Obama’s platforms is to compete with advanced internet ready countries. South Korea and Germany were two of the counties mentioned. The most important factor that the article mentioned was that “speed matters,” and that faster connections lead to greater productivity, and no one rich or poor should be left behind.