Fergie's Tech Blog

Bush Broadband Goal Fading

Roy Mark writes on internetnews.com:

President Bush's goal of "universal, affordable" broadband access for all Americans by 2007 is becoming a flagging notion, according to a study by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

In the report, the GAO determined only 28 percent of Americans had a broadband connection in 2005. In addition, 30 percent of the surveyed households use a dial-up connection to access the Internet, leaving 41 percent of U.S. homes without any Internet connection.

The GAO report also found that rural Americans are much less likely to subscribe to broadband than those living in cities. In all, only 17 percent of rural households have broadband service.

The report also questions Federal Communications Commission (FCC) numbers showing that 99 percent of Americans live in the 95 percent of ZIP codes that have at least one broadband provider reporting to be serving at least one subscriber.

posted by Fergie @ 5/09/2006 02:52:00 PM