IT@Pitt

Vermont vs. Verizon

While reading the Garson reading I ran across this article in The New York Times about Verizon contemplating pulling out of parts of rural Vermont in order to more fully pursue more lucrative markets, like Boston. All I could think the whole time I was reading this article was how much this related to the discussion in the Garson book about the digital divide. There is no doubt that those with dial-up are at a greater disadvantage that those who have digital connections and those in rural areas are more likely to have dialup connections. These people in Vermont were already at a digital disadvantage because they are still having to use a dial-up connect in order to access the internet. These live in such a rural area that there no high-speed wires that reach their homes. The slower dialup connection becomes busy that in order for people to access the internet they have to wake very early in the morning to try and connect.
It has been stated that people who are still using dial-up connections are being left behind in today's tech. oriented society. This is especially true if the connection is so bad/busy that you can not get on in the normal hours of the day. I believe that these people are being discriminated against and left behind technologically and that this digital divide will only become larger if Verizon pulls out. Verizon is not discriminating on the bases of age, sex or race, but there is definitely discrimination on the bases of location, and something needs to be done about it. Lucky some individuals see the need to branch the digital divide in rural areas You simply can not allow people to be uninformed because you would have to string some wires or there is a more lucrative market 100 mile south!

posted by julie @ 10:46 AM