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As broadband ¿ or high-speed ¿ Internet use has spread, Internet applications requiring high transmission speeds have become an integral part of the ¿Information Economy,¿ raising concerns about those who lack broadband access. This report analyzes: (1) rural broadband use by consumers, the community-at-large, and bus.; (2) rural broadband availability; and (3) broadband¿s social and econ. effects on rural areas. In general, rural communities have less broadband Internet use than metro communities. Rural communities that had greater broadband Internet access had greater economic growth, which conforms to supplemental research on the benefits that rural bus., consumers, and communities ascribe to broadband Internet use. Illustrations.
An analysis of the failure of U.S. broadband policy to solve the rural–urban digital divide, with a proposal for a new national rural broadband plan. As much of daily life migrates online, broadband—high-speed internet connectivity—has become a necessity. The widespread lack of broadband in rural America has created a stark urban–rural digital divide. In Farm Fresh Broadband, Christopher Ali analyzes the promise and the failure of national rural broadband policy in the United States and proposes a new national broadband plan. He examines how broadband policies are enacted and implemented, explores business models for broadband providers, surveys the technologies of rural broadband, and offers case studies of broadband use in the rural Midwest. Ali argues that rural broadband policy is both broken and incomplete: broken because it lacks coordinated federal leadership and incomplete because it fails to recognize the important roles of communities, cooperatives, and local providers in broadband access. For example, existing policies favor large telecommunication companies, crowding out smaller, nimbler providers. Lack of competition drives prices up—rural broadband can cost 37 percent more than urban broadband. The federal government subsidizes rural broadband by approximately $6 billion. Where does the money go? Ali proposes democratizing policy architecture for rural broadband, modeling it after the wiring of rural America for electricity and telephony. Subsidies should be equalized, not just going to big companies. The result would be a multistakeholder system, guided by thoughtful public policy and funded by public and private support.
This book explores broadband Internet use and rural America. For many Americans, a world without broadband is unimaginable. However, large parts of rural America have languished on the sidelines of the digital revolution. As many of their fellow citizens in more densely populated parts of the country go online for work, education, entertainment, healthcare, civic participation, and much more, too many rural Americans are being left behind. Rural governments and businesses are missing opportunities to function more efficiently and effectively. At a time when access to affordable, robust broadband services is a fundamental part of efforts to restore America's economic well-being in both rural and urban areas, we must ensure that this capability is available to open the doors of opportunity for everyone.
For many Americans, a world without broadband is unimaginable. For them, broadband Internet access has transformed the way they live their lives. But we have not succeeded in bringing broadband to everyone. For years, large parts of rural America have languished on the sidelines of the digital revolution. Home to the homesteaders, pioneers, and the rich and diverse Native American cultures that contribute so much to our national identity, rural America has for most of our history been deemed too remote, too sparsely populated, or too inaccessible to be fully connected with our nation's infrastructures. As many of their fellow citizens in more densely populated parts of the country go online for work, education, entertainment, healthcare, civic participation, and much more, too many rural Americans are being left behind. Rural governments and businesses are missing opportunities to function more efficiently and effectively. Even in rural areas where broadband is available, infrastructure deployment has not kept pace with the growing need for faster and more reliable connectivity. At a time when access to affordable, robust broadband services is a fundamental part of efforts to restore America's economic well-being in both rural and urban areas, we must ensure that this capability is available to open the doors of opportunity for everyone.
As broadband-or high-speed-Internet use has spread, Internet applications requiring high transmission speeds have become an integral part of the "Information Economy," raising concerns about those who lack broadband access. This report analyzes (1) rural broadband use by consumers, the community-at-large, and businesses; (2) rural broadband availability; and (3) broadband's social and economic effects on rural areas. It also summarizes results from an ERS-sponsored workshop on rural broadband use, and other ERS-commissioned studies. In general, rural communities have less broadband Internet use than metro communities, with differing degrees of broadband availability across rural communities. Rural communities that had greater broadband Internet access had greater economic growth, which conforms to supplemental research on the benefits that rural businesses, consumers, and communities ascribe to broadband Internet use.
This book offers a practice-based approach to developing strategies for utilizing broadband telecommunications for rural economic development. Edwards addresses four key questions in the publication: 1) How important is broadband telecommunications in the achievement of rural economic development success in the information-based economy? 2) What are the critical factors in assessing the potential of rural communities to utilize broadband telecommunications for economic development? 3) What policy trends are proposed to assist communities in the advancement of telecommunication-based economic development strategies? And 4) How can local leadership assist in the implementation of broadband for economic development success? By answering these important questions, Edwards provides the reader a step-by-step, practice-oriented framework for implementing a rural economic development planning strategy through the implementation of broadband telecommunications. Broadband connectivity is vital for rural communities to be actively engaged in the global information economy, but being connected is not enough. Utilization of technology is required if communities want to increase their potential for economic development success. Book jacket.
Historically, waves of new technologies have brought Americans higher standards of living. Electrical service and hot and cold running water, for example, were once luxuries; now their absence makes a home substandard. Today, technologies for accessing the Internet are diffusing at an even faster rate than those earlier innovations once did, bringing with them commensurate transformations of Americans' way of life. Technologies that increase the speed at which data can be transmitted have had powerful effects. Most importantly, they have transformed the Internet from a tool used by a narrow group of academics and technicians into a means of interaction used by a large majority of Americans. However, Americans have not universally benefitted from better Internet access. Geography, especially the divide between rural and urban America, determines how much some Americans can benefit from the Internet. Networks have not been as extensively developed in rural areas as in urban areas. Some people in rural America still have dial-up as their best available, affordable technology, a technology that offers five percent of the capacity for what the FCC has said is the broadband threshold. Others have service that reaches the broadband level, but still does not offer the "lightning-fast" speeds advertised by Internet service providers in urban areas. Accordingly, the nation faces a "broadband gap," not only with regard to the lack of access in rural areas to service that meets the broadband threshold, but also with regard to the lack of availability of faster service between urban and rural America. This report identifies opportunity costs that arise from this gap. These costs exist today, but the pace at which data transmission capability is growing means that the inequality between the technology being newly deployed and the technology that was deployed a decade or more ago is increasing. Networks that connect research institutions in the United States can move 100,000 times more data per unit of time than the dial-up connections that some Americans still must use. The technology gap is not a fixed deficit that once filled, stays filled. The technology gap will be larger--much larger--in the future, along with the information and technology gap, unless significant action is taken to overcome it. (Contains 2 figures, 1 table, and 19 footnotes.).
Advanced telecomm. services are just beginning to be deployed on a broader basis, although they are still primarily avail. only for bus. and urban users. Most Amer. with access to the Internet still connect through a telephone voice circuit. This report is intended to provide an initial assessment of the availability and rate of deployment for rural and non-rural areas to help gauge whether all Amer. are benefiting from advanced capabilities. Discusses: capability and avail. of advanced telecomm. facilities; rates of deploy.; capability of enhancements and feasibility of alternatives for rural broadband; and effectiveness of existing mechanisms in promoting rural deployment.