Access to affordable broadband continues to be one of the key speed bumps to ubiquitous use of eLearning. eHealthcare, and other cloud tools. This topic has been discussed here for many years, and hopes for new tech networking capabilities have been raised regularly, and in current posts about roll out issues with 5G.
Yet to date there are major parts of network backbones that are missing in rural areas, and the cost per home to “build out” is much higher where homes are far apart. It has been clear to some that this means we need some sort of government plan to address where the “market” by itself is failing would-be customers.
There are many reasons why quality and affordable internet access is important to society as a whole, as noted in this opinion piece below by a professor at U of Virginia. (and those reasons are true for all…affordable access is an essential ingredient in keeping the US competitive with other players in the global economy.
[gview file=”https://publicservicesalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Opinion-We-Need-a-National-Rural-Broadband-Plan-The-New-York-Times.pdf”]