Do you find yourself cussing when a call is dropped? How much do you cringe when Hulu is choppy or Netflix is on the fritz? Don't you hate it when gmail is down? Can you imagine running into those road blocks several times every day?
A huge portion of America's population would call themselves lucky to have good enough internet access to even run into those problems. Whether living in rural America, or just too financially strapped to afford a computer, they're frustrated.
Share with us your stories of poor internet or cell phone service.
Have you lived someplace rural that would benefit from internet connectivity?
Do you have family or friends that refuse to dive into using this technology?
Do you currently live without internet access in your home?
I found this article from the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/18/us...d.html?_r=1&hp
Here are some snippets:
Quote:
Digital Age Is Slow to Arrive in Rural America
By KIM SEVERSON
COFFEEVILLE, Ala. — After a couple of days in this part of rural Alabama, it is hard to complain about a dropped iPhone call or a Cee Lo video that takes a few seconds too long to load.
As the world embraces its digital age — two billion people now use the Internet regularly — the line delineating two Americas has become more broadly drawn. There are those who have reliable, fast access to the Internet, and those, like about half of the 27,867 people here in Clarke County, who do not.
In rural America, only 60 percent of households use broadband Internet service, according to a report released Thursday by the Department of Commerce. That is 10 percent less than urban households.
Over all, 28 percent of Americans do not use the Internet at all.
“This is like electricity was,” said Brian Depew, assistant executive direction for the Center for Rural Affairs, a nonprofit research group in Lyons, Neb. “This is a critical utility.”
“Ninety-five percent of the people in this county who want public water can have it, but people can’t even talk to each other around here,” said Sharon Lane, 60, who owns a small logging company with her husband and lives just outside of Coffeeville. It took her three days to try to arrange a meeting with the governor 150 miles away in Montgomery because such inquiries cannot be made over the phone...
It is a hard sell, especially among older residents or people with less education. A study last year by the Pew Internet & American Life Project showed that a fifth of adults do not use the Internet because they feel it is not relevant to their lives.
“The people who could benefit from broadband the most use it the least,” said Amelia Hall Stehouwer, a researcher from Auburn University who works with rural Alabama communities.
Still, it will be a long road to the digital age here.
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The article mentions elderly people not seeing the internet as pertinent to their lives, but I don't really relate to that concept. My grandmother had an e-mail account before anyone else in my family, she loved keeping in touch with family and reading her news on the internet.
On last summer's road trip we noticed that there was absolutely no cell phone coverage through most of South Dakota, even on the major highways. It made me re-evaluate my definition of poor coverage. Now it doesn't seem like as much of a problem to walk down the street to have cell phone service at my in-laws, or deal with crappy edge-network coverage when I'd rather have 3G.
That's just cell phone... I can't imagine trying to live someplace where even clunky computers at a public library didn't have internet access.