Hispanic Institute Urges Universal Broadband Access

Says High-Speed Internet Can Breed Opportunity for Minorities

by Laura Martinez -- Multichannel News, 1/20/2010 6:02:47 PM

The Hispanic Institute has collaborated with black, Native American and Asian-American elected officials on a report explaining broadband's key role in fomenting opportunity for the nation's communities of color.

The Washington, D.C.-based group and its partners are also urging lawmakers at all levels of government to expand high-speed Internet access for all Americans.

The report, Towards Access, Adoption & Inclusion: A Call for Digital Equality and Broadband Opportunity, includes data from institutions such as the Pew Hispanic Center and the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute that suggests a digital divide within the Latino community that falls along linguistic lines.

For example: while English-dominant Latinos subscribe to broadband services at a higher rate than non-Hispanic whites (68% of those surveyed having broadband services at home), Spanish-dominant Latinos lag well behind, with only 32% using the Internet in any form in 2006, compared to 78% of English-dominant Latinos and 76% of bilingual speakers.

Also in 2006, data from Pew showed that just 41% of all Hispanics had broadband access at home.

"Broadband is the best opportunity for people of color to advance in the areas of education, health care, and economic development," Hispanic Institute board chair Gus West said in a statement. "It is imperative that leaders in these communities have a seat at the technology and telecommunications policymaking table."

According to officials at The Hispanic Institute, the Federal Communications Commission is currently studying these issues and plans to report on a National Broadband Plan by Feb. 17 to ensure all people of the United States have access to broadband capability.

Some are urging that the FCC not only focus on increasing universal broadband adoption but that it also revisit the open Internet rules that former FCC chairman Michael Powell conceived in 2004 and which the agency formally adopted in 2005.