1: Access

Re-examine traditional model of telecommunications access bears in light of the dramatic service improvements and cost reductions available with fiber infrastructure.

Other Information:

Over the last decade the Internet has moved from a technological curiosity to an essential feature of modern life. Individual access to the net has exploded during this period, and initial disparities in terms of age, sex and racial groupings have diminished, if not disappeared. Concurrently the Internet is becoming an essential means of accessing information and resources and a key route to government services. This makes it inadmissible to shut any groups out of access to this resource. Not only is simple access to the Internet critical, but also questions of disability access, user interfaces, language, and presentations that are accessible to users with different levels of sophistication must be addressed. Second, as the technology has moved forward, the definition of basic access has begun to change. Although a majority of households now have dialup access to the Internet, many content providers are developing components that require broadband access for adequate service delivery, but broadband access is much less uniformly distributed than dialup. Info Ren believes that the traditional model of telecommunications access bears re-examination in light of the dramatic service improvements and cost reductions available with fiber infrastructure. Indeed, it is unclear if the incumbent service providers are capable of deploying needed new infrastructure or if basic network transport should be provided through a public utility, with service providers layering individual services on top of this common core.

Stakeholder(s):

• Community Service Providers: Closely related to this focus is the set of organizations that provides services to underserved groups but which often lack an extensive knowledge of technology or in-house capabilities to support technology.


• Government Agencies: A fourth target audience consists of personnel in government agencies who are beginning to use electronic means to interact with the general public.

Objective(s):

1

Content