State stopped trying to bridge digital divide in 1996 researcher says.
Texas ranks as one of the nations least-connected states with only three out of five Texans with Internet access at home according to numbers released Wednesday by the U.S. Census Bureau. Cities like Crystal City and Zapata near the Texas-Mexico border did not have major service providers until 2004.
Texas ranks just above Oklahoma New Mexico Arkansas South Carolina Alabama and Mississippi. New Hampshire with almost 85 percent connected at home Alaska and Utah took the top three spots on the most wired list.
Joe Straubhaar a director of the
University of Texas Digital Divide Project said Texas seemed poised to address digital disparities but stopped its efforts over the past decade.
From the late 90s to early 2000s Texas was ahead of the curve for states with rural areas Straubhaar said. We were doing what other states werent doing (such as) subsidizing (Internet) connection in schools and libraries.
Before 1996 Texas was on its way to making sure that the state had universal connection to the Internet Straubhaar said. State officials and experts at the time thought having access to the Internet was going to be the equivalent of having access to a phone line.
But in 1996 Texas lawmakers decided not to make Internet access universal Straubhaar said.
Instead they chose to foster competition among phone companies when they passed an amendment to the Public Utility Regulation Act according to UT Digital Divide Project data published in 1999.
This is now the equivalent of telephone service Straubhaar said. We made a bad decision in 1996 and havent really fixed it.
Most schools and libraries have Internet access but Texas is a large state with isolated rural areas that are unattractive to Internet service providers Straubhaar said.
Some people in Zapata last year hadnt heard of the Internet Straubhaar said.
Austin is significantly more wired than most of Texas according to an October 2009 Scarborough Research study with 81 percent of households accessing the Internet from home compared with 71 percent in San Antonio and 69 percent statewide.
If youre an immigrant cant speak English or (are) uneducated youre less likely to have Internet especially if you dont even know what it is Straubhaar said.
According to the census numbers 73 percent of white non-Hispanic households in Texas are connected to the Internet at home compared with about 53 percent of Hispanic households and 80 percent of Asian households .
Most schools and libraries have Internet access but Texas is a large state with isolated rural areas that are unattractive to Internet service providers Straubhaar said.
Some people in Zapata last year hadnt heard of the Internet Straubhaar said.
Austin is significantly more wired than most of Texas according to an October 2009 Scarborough Research study with 81 percent of households accessing the Internet from home compared with 71 percent in San Antonio and 69 percent statewide.
If youre an immigrant cant speak English or (are) uneducated youre less likely to have Internet especially if you dont even know what it is Straubhaar said.
According to the census numbers 73 percent of white non-Hispanic households in Texas are connected to the Internet at home compared with about 53 percent of Hispanic households and 80 percent of Asian households .
