ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides foundational vocabulary pertaining to broadband. It concerns the spatial dimensions of access and identifying how geography plays a critical role in either facilitating or complicating broadband access. The book provides understanding of broadband and its connections to regional development through a spatial lens. It discusses themes that impact regional economies globally, its empirical focus is the United States. This emphasis is important because although the United States was one of the first countries to deploy broadband, it has fallen behind. Digital subscriber lines (xDSL), access is strongly associated with household distance from a central office or a remote digital subscriber access multiplexer. One of the most pressing issues facing broadband is that telecommunications markets are becoming less competitive and more monopolistic, obliging Americans to pay higher rates for lower broadband speeds when compared to other consumers around the world.
