Rural Broadband Access Grim for Small Businesses

In a Hill forum sponsored by the Rural Broadband Coalition and Hughes Network Systems, Curtis Anderson, acting administrator of the Rural Utilities Service at the Department of Agriculture, said the Bush Administration has spent $3.3 billion on rural broadband deployment since 2001, and has $2 billion left. The funds are available as loans for small (<20,000) towns. the program has linked 1.3 million rural homes and businesses to broadband, Anderson said. The technology breakdown for federal funding has been 35% for fiber, 24% for DSL, 24% for wireless, 15% for hybrid fiber/coaxial cable and 2% for broadband over powerline (BPL). According to a broadband access study commissioned by Hughes Network Systems (HNS) and released Tuesday, 76% of small businesses (1-10 people) in rural locations lack terrestrial broadband access. Anderson said the USDA defines broadband as moving at speeds of 200 kbps or greater. But part of the USDA’s continuing evaluation of the program is to assess at what point 200 kbps no longer cuts it and when it will need to develop a “double track” for rural broadband funding.
[SOURCE: Communications Daily, AUTHOR: Adrianne Kroepsch]
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