Many rural areas still without high-speed, affordable Internet

Going online and accessing the World Wide Web is not only a way to share the day with friends over Facebook or to send news and pictures to others across country instantly through e-mail. It is also an important means of commerce and business communication. Access to broadband, high-speed Internet use is necessary to compete in the future, state and regional officials say.

“Small businesses and global corporations alike rely on broadband to connect them to the worldwide marketplace, train their work forces and facilitate the growth of their business,” Gov. Mike Beebe said last year in a statewide radio address. “Our future growth in Arkansas depends on how well we embrace the tools, skills and resources necessary to remain competitive in the 21st century.” Lamont Cornwell, director of the Benton Community Development Department, bluntly stated his opinion of the need for high-speed-Internet access. “It is a key for small business,” he said. “A small business or home business without high-speed Internet is dead. A lack of access can also be the death knell of larger businesses.” Use of high-speed Internet increased last year, according to Connect Arkansas, a private nonprofit organization promoting Internet access and created by the Connect Arkansas Broadband Act, signed by the governor in 2007. According to the organization, 24 percent of Arkansans subscribed to high-speed Internet in the past year, and 68 percent of the state’s residents have high-speed Internet in their home or workplace.