We want 20 percent of the lanes on the superhighway turned over to non-profit and public interests. High-speed printers will sit atop TV sets, continuously printing coupons and other sales pitches. A certain amount of information or programming should be made available at little or no charge to all citizens. The funds to make universal access available must come from the corporations that will enjoy enormous profits from the information infrastructure, said Chester. But Schiller warned that universal access is not enough.
Universal access is a very deceptive term.
Sure it's desirable, but it's got to be backed up by further kinds of support, so whoever does have access can also really use it. A long-time observer of information technology, Schiller says he is pessimistic about the eventual outcome of the battle for control of the information superhighway. At the moment those interests are strong and are prevailing. Frank Beacham writes a column for Alternet on communications technology issues.