News

Big steps forward in Alabama

06 Sep, 2007

Earlier this year Alabama Governor Bob Riley created the Alabama Rural Action Commission, which is charged with improving education, health care, and employment opportunities in rural parts of the state.

Now Gov. Riley has shown that he understands high speed internet can have huge impacts on all of those aspects of society. A key goal of the new Rural Action Commission is improving and expanding high speed internet access.

Such plans are a welcome development, since Alabama ranks 44th in the country in internet access.

Gerald Dial, the executive director of the Alabama Rural Action Commission, is working to fix that. He recently wrote a column in a local newspaper highlighting the need for universal high speed internet access in Alabama and explaining what his commission is doing to achieve it:

Technology breaks down the barriers of distance and equips rural residents to participate more fully in economic and civic life. Broadband allows rural areas to attract businesses and individuals who otherwise would be unable to live and work in rural communities. Broadband also can help rectify the shortage of education and health care opportunities which have functioned as barriers to rural economic development in the past. Internet access even gives farmers an edge by allowing them to monitor weather and crop reports and get quicker access to machinery parts, feed and seed supplies.

Dial noted that momentum is growing in Alabama to bring high speed internet to rural residents. His office is working with Troy University to develop a statewide map of high speed service, and they hope to implement the data collection soon. Dial also expressed his eagerness to follow the Connect Kentucky model of encouraging public-private partnerships to build out high speed infrastructure.

The reach of these efforts will extend far beyond the specific rural areas the new commission targets. As Dial says,