My Rural Broadband Journey: the one year trail to high-speed
Book Details
Author(s)Claire Perez
PublisherClaire Perez
ISBN / ASINB00M7HP7O8
ISBN-13978B00M7HP7O4
Sales Rank472,135
MarketplaceUnited States 🇺🇸
Description
My Rural Broadband Journey, a US citizen explores the systems that keep us stuck in the digital divide. It is set in upstate New York and chronicles my stories attempting to get high-speed Internet. This book is for people who want to understand what keeps rural citizens stuck in the broadband ghetto. It also shows the personal frustration that accompanies a lack of high-speed Internet.
The stories in this book are personal. They reflect the run around we received from an Internet Service Provider; the lack of actual power the local government, and hence we, the people, have with Internet Service Providers; the obfuscation of data by the local Internet Service Provider; the alienation my neighbors and I felt trying to talk with Time Warner Cable, Verizon and other ISPs about a connection; and the cost in time and money of not having a high-speed Internet connection.
When the Internet first emerged in the 1990s, it did not seem so bad having AOL dial-up service. But, as the Internet became more important to our personal economic and professional quality of life, we became frustrated by the digital divide. In 2005, we started asking Time Warner Cable to connect us to their high-speed Internet broadband service. The answer from that time forward was always something about a survey, the Public Service Commission formula and some astronomical fee if we wanted to pay out-of-pocket to get connected.
In 2011, I decided to focus my blog, itsaboutthestory.wordpress.com on the topic of my rural broadband struggle. I researched and spoke with lawmakers, community leaders, and Time Warner Cable representatives. I also scanned the web for articles that contained information on rural broadband, the last mile, and the digital divide. My book cites 29 references: in addition, there are several meetings discussed in the book. My rural broadband blog posts numbered over 45 from May 2011 through September 2012; my hits increased over 100 percent.
This is a book of rural broadband stories. My stories are compiled in one place and similar to other stories I have heard.
About the author: Claire Perez holds a M.S. in Communications from the Roy H. Park School at Ithaca College. Ms. Perez has taught for twenty years, including ten years as a secondary social studies instructor and three as a college lecturer. In addition, she has worked and volunteered in community education in Ithaca, New York. She writes a blog: itsaboutthestory.wordpress.com.
The stories in this book are personal. They reflect the run around we received from an Internet Service Provider; the lack of actual power the local government, and hence we, the people, have with Internet Service Providers; the obfuscation of data by the local Internet Service Provider; the alienation my neighbors and I felt trying to talk with Time Warner Cable, Verizon and other ISPs about a connection; and the cost in time and money of not having a high-speed Internet connection.
When the Internet first emerged in the 1990s, it did not seem so bad having AOL dial-up service. But, as the Internet became more important to our personal economic and professional quality of life, we became frustrated by the digital divide. In 2005, we started asking Time Warner Cable to connect us to their high-speed Internet broadband service. The answer from that time forward was always something about a survey, the Public Service Commission formula and some astronomical fee if we wanted to pay out-of-pocket to get connected.
In 2011, I decided to focus my blog, itsaboutthestory.wordpress.com on the topic of my rural broadband struggle. I researched and spoke with lawmakers, community leaders, and Time Warner Cable representatives. I also scanned the web for articles that contained information on rural broadband, the last mile, and the digital divide. My book cites 29 references: in addition, there are several meetings discussed in the book. My rural broadband blog posts numbered over 45 from May 2011 through September 2012; my hits increased over 100 percent.
This is a book of rural broadband stories. My stories are compiled in one place and similar to other stories I have heard.
About the author: Claire Perez holds a M.S. in Communications from the Roy H. Park School at Ithaca College. Ms. Perez has taught for twenty years, including ten years as a secondary social studies instructor and three as a college lecturer. In addition, she has worked and volunteered in community education in Ithaca, New York. She writes a blog: itsaboutthestory.wordpress.com.
