It is clear that high-speed information access provides new opportunities to educate our children and care for the sick. Companies locate where they have high-speed access to this new avenue of commerce, and shy away from areas where access is either prohibitively expensive or unavailable. The services available at higher speeds will truly revolutionize and improve our daily lives. Children can download educational video in real time.
Adults can train for new jobs from their homes.
Complex medical images such as MRIs and x-rays that today take several minutes to download can be transmitted in seconds. Telecommuting, business teleconferencing, and personal communication will all rise to new levels. The challenge today is extraordinary and is its implications are unmistakable. Too often we talk about a digital divide in the United States as if it were unchangeable, a simple fact of life that some communities will be empowered by technology while others will be left behind. Today most Americans use traditional copper wire technology to connect to the Internet.