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Today’s world is increasingly dependent on the connections made possible by broadband. Without it, people find it difficult, if not impossible, to keep up and get ahead. Students need wireless broadband access to learn and complete school assignments. Unemployed workers need it to open up job opportunities and communicate with employers. Just as important, our […]

Thomas Howard lives alone in Baltimore and relies on Social Security and an occasional meal at the Viva House, a soup kitchen where he once met a man offering mobile phones paid for by the federal government. Howard, a 66-year-old veteran, now uses the phone to keep in touch with family, friends and emergency services.

A report released Tuesday by the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development described access to internet as essential for life as clean drinking water and electricity. If that’s the case, rural America is dangerously dry and dark. While broadband access continues to expand for all Americans, rural areas have lagged behind urban and suburban areas. According to the Federal Communications Committee’s

Suffering heat stroke on an un-air-conditioned Tulsa, Oklahoma, transit bus, Sweet Paula Ogans-Recess’ cell phone may very well have saved her life. Losing consciousness as her complexion flushed, she dialed 911. First responders traced her call, found her, and administered aid. “I would have died… If it wasn’t for the phone, I wouldn’t be here,”