Hillary Clinton just herald at a rally in Warren , Michigan that she desire to connect every American household to broadband cyberspace bythe yr 2020 . It ’s a gracious cerebration . But with 2020 just a little over three year away , how realistic is the idea ? Not very .
According to the FCC ’s 2016Broadband Progress Report , one in ten Americans lack access to high - upper internet , defined as speed above 25Mbps . And when you isolate the numbers for rural America it gets even worse , with 39 percent of Americans ( 23 million people ) , lacking access to high-pitched - speed net .
increase access to broadband internet in rural areas has been a groundwork of the Obama disposal ’s domestic technology policy . It ’s in rural area where , much like the electrification struggles ofalmost 100 years ago , people have found it difficult to get connected at high - speeds that you ’d find in America ’s urban areas . But there ’s a lot of study left to be done .
Last twelvemonth the FCC changed the definition of broadband internet . The standard used to be a laughably dumb 4Mbps . The new minimum for being considered “ high - speed ” internet was raised to 25Mbps , though many thought that was still right smart too low-pitched .
Clinton ’s ticker might be in the right home , but we ’ll involve to discover more specifics to see how she design on get the 34 million Americans who presently do n’t have entree to broadband sneak up . In the lag , possibly she should recollect aboutprinting some things off the internetin decree to get some newspaper headline . Getting people faster internet does n’t really make the news in this election cycle .
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