Feds to improve broadband in rural areas

By Michael

September

9

2011

It has been reported that federal officials have made plans to help improve broadband in rural parts of the USA that are not properly catered for when it comes to high speed internet.

According to recent reports from the US Department of Agriculture, telecommunications firms in sixteen states are to share more than one hundred and three million worth of federal funding, which is to be used to help with the expansion of broadband access in rural areas in America that are underserved when it comes to high speed broadband services.

Officials are keen to bridge the digital divide and want to ensure that even the very hard to reach areas of the United States are able to benefit from broadband access. They believe that being able to expand broadband access in rural areas could have a huge positive impact on the economy as well as educational opportunities in rural areas.

Jonathan Adelstein, the agriculture department’s rural utilities service administrator, said: “There’s a big gap that remains between rural and urban areas because it’s just hard to make a business case in rural areas. Rural areas’ future depends upon access to broadband and we’re not where we need to be today.”

There are many areas in the USA where broadband and internet speeds and access are so inadequate that consumers, students, and businesses are unable to conduct even basic activities that people in urban areas with high speed internet take for granted.

Source – USA Today