The Digital Divide

Wiley Middleton is exactly the sort of fellow whom small towns love to welcome home. A 45-year-old graphics designer who honed his craft in bigger cities, Middleton moved back to his native Leadville, Colo., 18 months ago, eager to trade urban pressures for the serenity of this historic mining town of 3,421. But Leadville's telephone system is quaint too, and won't let his computer modem send the digital images that are his livelihood. This regularly forces Middleton to drive two hours to Denver to deliver electronic designs for brochures and ads. "I can't compete," he laments, again facing the prospect of leaving Leadville for the city. "The phone line is too small."

Or too narrow, to be more precise. The aging patchwork of thin wires and microwave towers that brings phone service to millions of Americans in remote spots like mountainous Leadville can barely transmit at speeds of 28.8 kilobits per second or less--assuming they can dial up a local Internet service at all. Meanwhile, much of the country has moved up to 56K modems or adopted one of the new broadband telephone and cable-company services that bring the Net to homes and businesses up to 100 times as fast. And the gap between online haves and have-nots appears to be widening.

"There is a growing digital divide," says Philip Burgess, president of the Center for the New West, an advocacy group whose board includes Solomon Trujillo, ceo of regional phone giant US West, and Utah Governor Michael Leavitt. The gulf, Burgess warns, could have "dire implications" for the social and economic fabric of many communities, particularly those in sparsely populated Western states.

Many of the start-up businesses that are driving employment and wealth in the new economy are built around the Internet and won't locate where it can't be speedily accessed. Even established businesses require high-speed Net connections to communicate effectively with customers, suppliers and employees. Professionals consider the bandwidth available in a locality when they decide where to work, live and buy vacation homes. The same calculation is made by affluent retirees who track investments online. At the same time, kids who aren't skilled on the Net face a growing disadvantage in college and the job market.

Not all the barriers to Internet access are geographic. The online population is still largely well educated, pale skinned and upper-middle income--a point the Rev. Jesse Jackson reinforced in recent speeches to Silicon Valley leaders. Whites are twice as likely as blacks to own a computer and three times as likely to be plugged into the Internet.