The Internet backbone and the American metropolis

Despite the rapid growth of advanced telecommunications services, there is a lack of knowledge about the geographic diffusion of these new technologie s. The Internet presents an important challenge to communications researche rs, as it threatens to redefine the production and delivery of vital servic es including finance, retailing, and education. This article seeks to addre ss the gap in the current literature by analyzing the development of Intern et backbone networks in the United States between 1997 and 1999. We focus u pon the intermetropolitan links that have provided transcontinental data tr ansport services since the demise of the federally subsidized networks depl oyed in the 1970s and 1980s. We find that a select group of seven highly in terconnected metropolitan areas consistently dominated the geography of nat ional data networks, despite massive investment in this infrastructure over the study period. Furthermore, while prosperous and internationally orient ed American cities lead the nation in adopting and deploying Internet techn ologies, interior regions and economically distressed cities have failed to keep up. As information-based industries and services account for an incre asing share of economic activity, this evidence suggests that the Internet may aggravate the economic disparities among regions, rather than level the m. Although the capacity of the backbone system has slowly diffused through out the metropolitan system, the geographic structure of interconnecting li nks has changed little. Finally, the continued persistence of the metropoli s as the center for teleconnmunications networks illustrates the need for a more sophisticated understanding of the interaction between societies and technological innovations.