FCC chairman: Broadband access should be universal

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski announced today that Broadband access should be made available to all US citizens, despite the fact that not all citizens who have access to such services currently subscribe.

According to an Associated Press article, the Chairman said "... broadband is a critical infrastructure challenge of our generation." Citing differences in internet use by various demographic & economic groups, the Chairman did not specify how the government would pay to make broadband access more readily available, but did say that they he hoped to have a plan in place by February 2010.

Visit Wikipedia's article on Internet Access to see the history and different internet access options available. In that article, Wiki states "Today, there is a big push by the United Nations to make Internet access a human right. This push was made when it called for universal access to basic communication and information services at the UN Administrative Committee on Coordination."

The article continues, "In 2003, during the World Summit on the Informaiton Society, another claim for this was made. In some countries such as Estonia, France, Finland, and Greece, Internet access has already been made a human right." (Read article on France's High Court runling from June 2009 here.)