Rural Strategies Part of FCC Workshop

The promise of broadband to decrease the economic and social gap between rural and metropolitan areas is going unfulfilled, said Tim Marema, vice president of the Center for Rural Strategies, in a presentation at a Federal Communications Commissioner workshop.

Tim was one of five panelists at a public forum on digital inclusion held Dec. 14 in Memphis, Tennessee, at the National Civil Rights Museum. The workshop was part of the FCC’s effort to gather information for the National Broadband Plan. The FCC must submit the plan to Congress on Feb. 17, 2010.

 “As the broadband network moves ahead, those of us left behind are going to pay a higher and higher cost for exclusion,” Tim said. Broadband is now required for many grant applications, government contracting, job applications, and basic business operations and service.

Tim cited difficulties for rural students in Central Appalachia taking traditional community college classes, a volunteer fire department in northern California that missed a grant deadline because it had only dialup service with which to file the required online application, and other examples.

Other panelists discussed broadband and other groups such as the elderly and people of color.