Rural Americans Want Better Internet Connection
While humanity is increasingly living in urban areas, rural communities are still catching up when it comes to high-speed Web access. After all, being left out of the digital revolution isn't easy when it seems like everyone around the world is experiencing the wonder of online social networks and e-commerce. According to USA Today, farmers in Plains, Texas for instance want better broadband Internet access, but have to deal with expensive installations, unreliable access, and slow connections.
If you tear your hair out after ten minutes of not being able to connect to the Internet, think of farmers like Jeff Roper, who deal with lost connections for days or weeks at a time. Roper told USAToday, "Just because we live in rural America doesn't mean we shouldn't have broadband." He lives on a 2,400-acre farm and expects the same accessibility as any city dweller.
And Congress agrees. The Internet is not only an important source of information, but a major factor in job creation. According to Connected Nation as cited by USA Today, an economic stimulus to support broadband installation in remote areas would cost $7.2 billion, but a mere 7-percent increase in broadband access could stimulate the economy by more than $134 billion. [From: USA Today]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Wally said 1:23PM on 6-09-2009
A guy who lives on a two thousand acre plus farm expects the same access to broadband and someone living in a city where many people call a 900 sq feet of living space home?
Considering that the population movement is from the country to the city where you can find jobs other than being a dairy farmer, this is wasted money.
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ihave2huskys said 5:33PM on 6-09-2009
no internet no FOOD
Brian said 2:40PM on 6-09-2009
Moar intarnet! MOAR! Mwahahahha! #skynet
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Tom said 5:55PM on 6-09-2009
A smart grid requires fast reliable communications.
Farms and Dairies are the next Beach-Head for renewable Energy projects ranging from Hundreds of Kw to MW each, and will need to coordinate with Utilities to help manage increasingly Distributed Generation of power in the near Future.
A fatter pipe (DSL) is the most economical solution.
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dpil1 said 8:44PM on 6-09-2009
I totally agree with this guy also living in a rural area where no broadband is available and satellite connection is bad it sucks being left out of stuff like online gaming and being able to stream video
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BeaverLakeTechGroup said 11:07PM on 6-24-2009
I am a Rural Wireless Internet Provider (WISP). The problems we face in providing basic broadband are many. I believe that rural dwellers (country folks, farmers, retires and the like) should be able to get broadband that is comparable city dwellers. The reasons I believe this are, to improve crop output per acre, provide online learning, improve the connection of families separated because of the need to work, provide redundant communication paths for seniors to feel closer to the Grand Kids. I have customers is all of the above groups, more of them than gamers and u-tube or hulu viewers.
The problems WISPs face are cost of bandwidth($6K per month for a T3)(the big carriers charge us more that they charge the companies they own). The size of pipe we can provide is not large enough "WiMax", Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) is to high, the customers can not afford it so we are stuck with 802.11
Bandwidth management is difficult, new services (Net Flix, Hulu and...) are available every day but we only have so much Bandwidth, customers get angry when we point out that P2P is banned in the Terms Of Service when the Grand Son loads Lime Wire on Grandpa's desk top and leaves it open for serving files. The issue is the large carriers do not want small WISPs to survive so they are pricing us out of the market the still will not serve. I net $10 more or less per customer per month (net just on operations and Tech Support) and then a lighting storm takes out $2k worth of routers and tower equipment (2000 / 10 = 200) So It takes out profit for most of a month.
We (the Rural WISPs) need regulation so we can buy Bandwidth at the same rate as the big carrier's charge the ISPs they own. We need bigger pipes that the customer can afford to buy, from what I see the cost line for most Rural customers is under $100 -$200 for CPE installed be it Wimax, 802.11 N or???
The point is that Rural America has the same needs as the folks that live in Urban areas, reducing the carbon foot print alone is justification.
Thanks for reading the ramblings of a tired, broke, Country Geek who thinks that equal access to the internet is important to all of us.
Bonner D. Sawyer Tindle (the country geek)
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Dracavelill said 10:30AM on 8-26-2009
I live in Ayden, NC....broadband is a pipedream, they just do not want to spend the money to bring it out here....the cable wire itself (from comcast) is about 4-5 houses up...but they refuse to connect us been this way for about 3-4 years now...we are held hostage by satellite companies who charge nearly 400 dollars a month for internet hookup...(59 dollars a month but you have to spend 350 for equipment), I think it could be a antitrust issue....even embarq our phone company offers dsl to greenville...while we in ayden just a few miles out don't qualify, yet are dial up service coupled with the regular phone bill is at the same rate or higher for that of DSL through Embarq.
States won't spend that stimilus money on high speed internet, NC had a budget shortfall of about 3 billion, they wil hold on to it to stave off layoffs.
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