Costs keep broadband connections from many rural Americans

Rural folks aren't prone to complain. They work hard, love their communities and wouldn't think of living anywhere else. But that doesn't mean they don't want, and need, to be connected to the outside world. "Just because we live in rural America doesn't mean we shouldn't have broadband," says Jeff Roper, a third-generation peanut farmer. "We're all Americans. We shouldn't be treated less than anyone else." By pushing hard on broadband, lawmakers hope to close the "digital divide" that has long separated rural America. In doing so, they hope to give rural consumers access to the same sorts of high-speed services and opportunities — think telemedicine, distance-learning and Web-based commerce — that city dwellers have enjoyed for years.