FCC releases rural broadband report‎

FCC releases rural broadband report

WASHINGTON, May 27 (UPI) -- Improved cooperation between governments, tribes and agencies is needed to extend broadband Internet access to rural America, officials say.

In a congressionally mandated report released Wednesday, acting Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Copps said enhancing communications between rural authorities is one of the starting points for efforts to establish the high-speed Internet infrastructure vital for rural development, an FCC statement said.

Broadband "is the interstate highway of the 21st century for small towns and rural communities, the vital connection to the broader nation and, increasingly, the global economy," Copps said in the report, entitled, "Bringing Broadband to Rural America: Report on a Rural Broadband Strategy." "Our nation as a whole will prosper and benefit from a concerted effort to bring broadband to rural America." Read more here.



Download the report here.

if you broadband it, they will come...

writing papers and stuff as i round out my final semester at UW, and i stumble upon this little gem that plays into a few of the topics from a while back:

Rural America not ready for broadband? Hogwash, say ISPs

given the documented evidence, it certainly seems like "Rural America is both hungry for broadband and anxious to use it." i (being a skeptical person) am skeptical since this information is coming from the actual service providers and other people who are going to be benefiting from getting this out there, but regardless of any of that, i am pretty much down with getting this broadband internet thing out to rural america so granma and granpa joad can set up their 4chan account asap.

WSJ: Rural residents without high-speed Internet struggle to keep up

Doug King publishes his keyboard music online and his wife, Marjorie, sells home-made pottery to customers in Iceland, China and New Zealand. But doing business from their rural Dane County house is virtually impossible without high-speed Internet.

"We got to the point where we’re simply unable to do business" using the dial-up Internet their phone company provides, King said. The couple finally signed up for a wireless modem from Verizon, which in the last year has sought to build nine cell towers in rural Dane County to keep up with growing demand...(more)

Free Press Documentary Series on Broadband Internet

Free Press went to North Carolina recently, and interviewed people in rural areas about how their lack of access to broadband internet service was hurting their economic opportunities and connection to the outside world.

Very interesting stuff, connected to the Internet for Everyone project, which advocates for broadband expansion as a necessary service, like water or telephony.