The Rural Internet - A Primmer

Vicki Garrick, an assistant dean at the University of Georgia's Tifton campus, writes about shared broadband internet usage in this month's issue of Rice Farming magazine. The article - The Rural Internet - is a brief primmer on the subject of wirelessly connecting scattered locations.

It includes a table comparing different forms of connecting to the web and the fit each might have in rural areas. Choices include dialup, digital subscriber lines (DSL), satellite connections and fixed wireless service.

One of the real disservices done to rural Americans has been the lack of a federal effort to bring more broadband service to rural areas. The same sort of campaign that pushed electrification into the countryside in the first half of the 20th Century has been needed to bring broadband to farmers who are too far from town for DSL service.

Where federal money has gone into wireless broadband, it has tended to be to places like Indian reservations. I've got no problem with funding that, but the bulk of the countryside - where farmers grow crops and need ready connections to the internet - are largely bypassed.

Low-interest loans for building out wireless service have been unavailable to small businesses that operate wireless services. It's a great technology that has gone to waste.

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