How do we address surging bandwidth usage and bridge the digital
divide in a country where tens of millions of families don’t
have any high-speed access to the Internet at home – and
everyone sees high prices often without the speeds for the most
cutting edge uses of the Internet? Just this week, The Wall
Street Journal highlighted how many low-income teens, a third of
whom have no broadband at home, turn to places like McDonalds
with free Wi-Fi to get their homework done. New money to bridge
that gap is an obvious need cited by many political leaders, but
the money needs to come from somewhere. One question is whether
content providers on the Internet like Netflix, Google and
Facebook, who profit tremendously from the existence of a fast
Internet, should be taxed to support the physical infrastructure
supporting broadband? In Europe, at least, political leaders are
increasingly arguing that the answer should be yes. A report
commissioned by French President Francois Hollande recently
argued for an “Internet