The Internet has grown strong in recent years. Check out this post and learn how wireless internet is advocating Internet availability.
How Wireless Internet Access is Advocating Internet Availability
The US is an internet-rich country, with thousands of ISPs and hundreds of thousands of meters of cables.
Cabled broadband was certainly at the forefront of this transformation the country has undergone these past two decades, but there are more options today than ever before.
With devices like phones and tablets relying on wireless networks, there have been advancements in wireless technology, and now even entire homes and communities can be connected to the internet wirelessly yet lose none of the speed of a cable.
Case Study: Surprise, Arizona
The US has such varied locations, at such varied altitudes, in such varied climates, that it might seem impossible to provide a stable network to the entire country. However, community-based ISPs that understand the needs of a community and the families living there have found wireless ways to innovate.
Rather than running cables to the community, each household can use fiber optic cable to create their own, household-based wireless router. This means internet access can be provided almost anywhere.
Plus, even better, fiber optics are extremely efficient and so maintain fast speeds despite it being wirelessly accessed.
In Surprise Farms, Arizona, the local ISP has invested in this idea and created a state-based, wireless network.
The internet is more accessible than ever and comes with all the benefits of a truly community-based ISP. For details on this specific case, read here for more info.
How Much Has Availability Changed?
Depending on your situation, you might find this focus on accessibility to sounds trivial. However, even just 2 decades ago in 2000, internet access in the USA was at ~50%. High-income families made up over 90% of that access.
Compare that to now, when even low-income families have over 75% access to the internet, and it’s easy to see why accessibility is such an important part of the USA’s internet network.
Not only are wired broadband networks more integrated than ever, but wireless networks are taking off in a whole new way.
Fiber optics have increased speeds in otherwise inaccessible areas, which has in turn meant that people don’t need to move to a specific place for a specific internet speed.
Moving state just to access the internet in a certain way is an excessive measure, and the US is slowly moving away from that very real situation through these breakthroughs in Internet availability.
The Goal
At the end of another two decades, in 2042, we should be able to look back and see how wireless coverage of fast, stable, home internet has grown.
Communities should be able to rely on their local ISP and have the freedom to access those services no matter where they are in the country.
We have seen how fast mobile networks exploded to cover the entire country and those technological advances may be one day used for home broadband too, continuing the trend the US has set of increasing internet availability and accessibility. The future is certainly bright in this regard.
