Global digital divide not so great anymore

As the U.N.'s World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) convenes in Geneva, Reuters reports that the "digital divide" between rich and poor nations is quickly narrowing, according to a World Bank report. The report notes "that telecommunications services to poor countries were growing at an explosive rate" and calls into question "a costly United Nations campaign to bring hi-tech telecommunications to the developing world." Apparently "half the world's population now enjoys access to a fixed-line telephone, the report said, and 77 percent to a mobile network -- surpassing a WSIS campaign goal that calls for 50 percent access by 2015." Meanwhile, as Laurence Lessig notes in a Wired commentary, 14 states have followed Pennsylvania in passing legislation that bans or stymies the creation of municipal wi-fi networks - leaving many Americans with access only to limited and overpriced commercial broadband access (or no access at all, because it's so expensive or because private interests don't find poor inner cities to be commercially attractive). Perhaps, before long, third world countries will surpass the United States in broadband internet access.