A closer look at rural broadband

I expected to have my head handed to me by readers of my recent column, “Forget Universal Broadband.” But so far, no curses to my family name or offers to fistfight have appeared in the comments section under that article. Still, I'm not assuming that's just because, in the context of our national discussion about broadband stimulus, questioning federal subsidies for universal broadband is becoming less controversial. I invited one passionate universal broadband advocate to tear me a new one in the comments section under that story, and he replied, “I wish I had the time.”

But as these debates continue, they lead us to smarter ways to approach the digital divide. For example, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which is helping to distribute broadband stimulus funds, made an interesting point in a new report released today on rural broadband access:

“Depending on the ultimate goal of universal Internet access, the distinction between individual access and household access can be important,” the USDA wrote. “The gap in Internet use between rural and urban households (9.3 percentage points) is wider than the gap between all rural and urban individuals (6.5 percentage points). Policies encouraging broadband access generally adopt either an implicit individual or household approach, where the policy addresses one population directly with only secondary efforts directed at the other. If, for example, the policy goal is to improve educational opportunities for school-age children, a program that improves in-school broadband access may be more cost-effective than one designed to improve broadband access to households, although such a program may also spur household adoption.”

In talking about universal broadband, we often paint rural America with too broad a brush, ignoring important distinctions like those cited by the USDA. The recognition of those distinctions and exploration of the finer details of rural broadband — illuminated by debate over public funding initiatives — hopefully will lead us to smarter policies in this arena and help deflate the controversies that sparked debate in the first place.

E-mail me at ed.gubbins@penton.com.