Report: Proactive policies needed to connect rural areas

“Broadband Internet Use in Rural Pennsylvania,” a report from the Center for Rural Pennsylvania, examines high speed Internet availability and adoption with regard to health care, local government, education and business. Results indicate that what is needed in rural Pennsylvania as well as other rural areas across the country, are proactive policies to facilitate expanding high speed Internet access and adoption. The study used case studies, interviews and Web site analysis.

High speed Internet makes a big difference for anyone – but the impact of high speed can be even greater in geographically isolated regions.

“Broadband services offer a huge opportunity for rural areas with significant payback in terms of economic development and community revitalization,” said Amy Glasmeier, professor of geography and co-author of the report. “The Internet makes possible a whole range of processes which involve more than rapid access to information and which range from joint projects by municipalities and collaborations between schools to development of new business processes.”

In order to get rural regions in Pennsylvania, or any state, connected to high speed Internet, policies that specifically advocate for adoption and access need to be on the books, according to the study. As the only industrialized nation without a national high speed Internet policy, we have been at the mercy of slow high speed Internet expansion for too long.

Broadband Access Opens Doors To Networking, Economic Development For Rural Areas (Science Daily)

Need for National Policy (Speed Matters)