Home
Introduction
Social Good
Economic Theory
Public Policy Hotspots
Conclusions
Appendicies

 

 

Also available on Charlie's Angel: project.

 

 

 

Social Good: APT Principles of Universal Service

The Alliance for Public Technology, in this paper, list as the paper's goal the establishment of "advanced universal service" within the U.S.  Advanced universal service is defined to be "high capacity two-way communications networks capable of enabling users to ori ginate and receive affordable and accessible high quality, voice, data, graphics, video and other types of telecommunications services."   The reasons stated for achievement of this goal are the benefits that would accrue from the existence of universal service including increased efficiency and convenience of services, but more importantly allowing sectors of the population access to economic opportunities and  the democratic process that would otherwise be unavailable.  It also makes specific mention of avoiding regional differences (suburban versus urban and rural) in availability of service.

Overall, this report is extremely positive, listing only possible benefits to accrue from the development of universal service, and ignoring that the problems that could be caused by what is called the "digital divide" in other APT reports are also a legitimate reason for addressing the issue of universal service.

Next: CPSR

 

Up ] Social Good: Carnegie Commision ] [ Social Good: APT ] Social Good: CPSR ] Social Good: ATP ] Social Good: NTIA ] Social Good: OTA ]