An article from The Berkshire Eagle¬¨‚Ćpoints out there is still a serious digital divide in one of the United States’ most technologically active states. Massachusetts presents an attractive market¬¨‚Ćof educated, up-scale, professional consumers but, while city-dwellers enjoy broadband access, vacationers and residents in attractive outlying areas, like the Berkshires and Cape Cod,¬¨‚Ćdo not. According to the Eagle:An article from The Berkshire Eagle¬¨‚Ćpoints out there is still a serious digital divide in one of the United States’ most technologically active states. Massachusetts presents an attractive market¬¨‚Ćof educated, up-scale, professional consumers but, while city-dwellers enjoy broadband access, vacationers and residents in attractive outlying areas, like the Berkshires and Cape Cod,¬¨‚Ćdo not. According to the Eagle:
The digital divide has barely narrowed in the Berkshires, where many communities still face snail-paced Internet connections over dial-up lines. Although high-speed access can be found in Pittsfield, North Adams and the larger towns, phone and cable companies have been reluctant to extend that service to sparsely populated areas, where the return on expensive infrastructure investment is not as great.
The lack of high-speed Internet access in the Berkshires, Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket has been identified as a key challenge by Gov.-elect Deval L. Patrick’s transition team. And officials are acknowledging that it will take investment of some public dollars to narrow the divide.
While Massachusetts weighs the investment, its tiny neighbor, Rhode Island, is winning accolades for the investment it has made in technology, specifically RI-WINS (Rhode Island Wireless Innovation Networks), a plan to make Rhode Island the first state in the nation with border-to-border wireless broadband access. (Esme reported on the project last May. Click here for details on RI-WINs’ pilots.)
CDW-G,¬¨‚Ćthe giant¬¨‚Ćtech distributor in the government market, rated RI-WINS Number 1 in the United States for state investment in wireless technologies.¬¨‚ĆRhode Island was the only state cited by CDW-G as a “Lead Investor” among states. According to a press release from the Business Innovation Factory, the non-profit group organizing public-private partnerships in Rhode Island,
The distinction of being a “Lead Investor” includes state/local governments that understand the value of technology and its impact on the business of government; cognizant of the risk-reward trade-off, but tolerant of risk and capable of managing it; legislative and/or political support for its IT agenda; association or institutional support for IT education; and prioritizing wireless expenditures across multiple product categories.
¬†РCarol Ellison
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