A Broad(band) Reach: Bringing the Internet to Rural America

From police protection to trash pickup, cities and counties provide a variety of services to its residents.  Adding broadband to that mix, especially on a citywide scale, is a relatively new conceptthat nonetheless can provide tangible benefits to the municipalities that offer it.  For the most part, large cities don’t have a major problem with broadband installation. The populations are so dense that many private broadband providers will take on the expense of building and maintaining networks, confident that customers will follow. But smaller, more rural areas, or those in traditionally economically disadvantaged areas, may not attract a major internet provider right off the bat.  The answer might be for a city’s IT leaders to roll up their sleeves and do it themselves. There are some cows in Sequatchie County, Tenn., (just outside Chattanooga) that have faster Internet than everyone living in San Francisco.  In rural states like Kentucky, where up to 25 percent of the population has no internet access, providers must explore ways to bridge the lonely miles between towns.