* Utopian claims need to be tempered.Universal service alone will not guarantee a more democratic society, economically or politically. In "Universal
Service Policies as Wealth Redistribution," Milton L. Mueller points out
that, broadly speaking, economic growth and telecommunications growth
are mutually causative. If infrastructure expansion does not keep pace,
then economic growth and wealth creation will stagnate. However,
insuring access to that infrastructure will not significantly affect the
pattern of uneven wealth distribution in this country, the underlying cause
of the divide in the first place.
The stakes for democracy are even more
problematic. While the Web allows everyone a voice, not everyone will choose
to participate. More likely, as usage patterns already show, the Web will
be used primarily for its entertainment value. In like manner, the democratizing
possibilities of television were once heralded, but that promise has gone
unfulfilled. Television news shows ratings as well as newspaper subscriptions
have been dropping for years, and control of those media has steadily consolidated
into the hands of international conglomerates, not local communities. Simple
access to the infrastructure will not be enough to disrupt the mechanisms
of capitalism; nor will it insure home use, much less certain kinds of
home use.
Even if Internet access to the infrastructure is assured, low
income households may not be able to keep up with usage-related costs,
including access to certain content, and government support for such costs
flies in the face of historical precedent with other media. For example,
cross-subsidies (i.e., charging businesses and cities more for services
than the charges in rural areas to level out the cost/price differential),
have insured most U.S. households a dial tone but have not insured access
to 900 services for horoscopes; public funds have paid for books at the
public library, but not books at home; and postal rates are lower for delivering
magazines, but tax money is not used to lower subscription rates per se.