Culture
Why We Should Build a National Internet System Under the National Highway System
A "broadband superhighway" would broaden digital access, boost the economy, and lay the foundation for an intelligent transportation system.
Earlier this month, The Daily Yonder, a well-named site about life in rural America, brought us this unsettling map of broadband availability, or lack thereof, in the country's remote counties:
Truth is, the connectivity of U.S. cities is nothing to brag about either. A 2012 report from the New America Foundation found that residents of major American cities pay more money for slower Internet service than their counterparts in major cities around the world. Case in point: in Hong Kong, roughly $35 gets you access to a fiber-optics network with 500 Mbps download speed; in New York or Washington, it gets you a cable network at 25 Mbps.