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Is Mobile Broadband a Luxury Or a Human Right?

Posted by Soulskill on from the thou-shalt-not-be-stuck-with-dial-up dept.

concealment sends this quote from an article at CNN: "Moderating a discussion on the future of broadband, Mashable editor-in-chief Lance Ulanoff tossed a provocative question to the audience: 'By quick show of hands, how many out there think that broadband is a luxury?' Next question: 'How many out there think it is a human right?' That option easily carried the audience vote. Broadband access is too important to society to be relegated to a small, privileged portion of the world population, Hans Vestberg, president and CEO of Ericsson, said during the discussion. Dr. Hamadoun Touré, secretary-general of the International Telecommunication Union, echoed Vestberg's remarks. 'We need to make sure all the world's inhabitants are connected to the goodies of the online world, which means better health care, better education, more sustainable economic and social development,' Touré said."

8 of 332 comments (clear)

  1. A Luxury by siphonophore · · Score: 5, Insightful

    One must be careful about diluting the word "right." Leave it at 3, and protect them fiercely.

    --
    Dance like you're hurt, Love like you need money, and work when somebody's watching.
    -Scott Adams
    1. Re:A Luxury by bondsbw · · Score: 5, Insightful

      When living your life often requires internet access, then it becomes a right.

      Living your life more often requires a car than internet access. Is owning a car a right? Do we all get free cars?

      --
      All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
    2. Re:A Luxury by kelemvor4 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      When living your life often requires internet access, then it becomes a right.

      Living your life more often requires a car than internet access. Is owning a car a right? Do we all get free cars?

      Plenty of people live without both, and neither one is a right. This is silliness that's being used to sell electronics.

    3. Re:A Luxury by cayenne8 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      When living your life often requires internet access, then it becomes a right. If everyone had provided the non-internet equivalent of the daily services, then maybe it would be a luxury

      Seriously???

      I mean, the internet is fantastically convenient...but there's nothing I couldn't do to live (eat, buy stuff, pay bills) without having an internet connection, and doing things the "old fashioned" way of like 8-10 years ago....

      A right? Give me a break.....

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
  2. You have the right to pay for your own stuff. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Oh spare us the human "rights" that involve other people paying for the stuff you want.

  3. Right vs Good Idea by BenSchuarmer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's not a right, but that doesn't mean it's not a good idea. I think societies will find that the benefits of setting it up are worth more than the cost.

  4. Rights versus someone else's property by jedidiah · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Rights are only appropriately applied to liberties. You never have the right to someone else's property or labor. Goods and services are not something you can have a "right" to.

    Access may be a compelling social good but it is absurd to call it a right.

    --
    A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
  5. Life, Liberty, Pursuit of Happiness by Revotron · · Score: 5, Insightful

    1. Life: Can you survive without it? Yes.
    2. Liberty: Does not having it limit your freedom of speech, right to bear arms, right to a fair and speedy trial, or other consitutional rights? No.
    3. Pursuit of Happiness: Could you live a happy life without it? Yes.

    It is not a right to be bestowed upon you, it is an opportunity afforded to you by others. As such, others may request compensation for it.

    I'm getting sick of this new generation of entitlement.