Rural Areas and the Internet

Citizens in rural communities use the Internet for many of the same reasons that suburban and urban individuals do. The one major difference is that many more residents of suburban and urban areas have broadband availability.

(Access to high-speed Internet service has been rising, but rural areas lag cities and suburbs. As of September, 42 percent of adults living in urban areas had broadband at home, compared with 40 percent in the suburbs and 24 percent in rural America. Pew Internet Project )

Consequently, when conducting business online, when researching for information, rural residents often pay a price--waiting or pages to download over a slow dialup connection.

Most rural residents find this level of access unacceptable. Dialup access inhibits economic activity, slows or blocks access to important health or current events information, and in general lowers quality of life.

Are there answers? Loon Lake residents found that their service provider was not willing to provide broadband access. They met with a wireless provider from Spokane and now have broadband access.

You can find what other communities are doing across the nation at the NPR web site at:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5053488

A decent report on the status of rural Internet access and usage by the Pew Internet and American Life Project can be found at
http://www.pewinternet.org/report_display.asp?r=112