Your Opinion: Congress must bridge digital divide

Dear Editor:

As a concerned citizen of Central Missouri, I would like to support the LightSquared initiative to broadband 92 percent of the U.S. by 2015.

As a Mid-Missouri resident and owner of a vacation home at Lake of the Ozarks, living on the wrong side of the digital divide is not only frustrating, it is senseless. Our family is unable to check e-mail for work or keep up with current events at our vacation home due to the lack of reliable or affordable Internet service.

I encourage our elected leaders in Washington, D.C., to figure out a way for divergent interests to hammer out a win-win solution on the GPS vs LightSquared debate. Rural Missourians should not have to make a choice between GPS and broadband. All Missourians, in urban and rural areas alike, deserve to benefit from LightSquared's innovative technology.

We should all ask Senators Blunt and McCaskill and our congressional delegation to help find a solution where GPS and LightSquared can peacefully co-exist.