Screen LibraryFarm fresh broadband : the politics of rural connectivity /
"This study of the political economy of rural broadband combines critical policy analysis with stories of rural Americans and offers solutions for solving the rural-urban digital divide"--
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| Main Authors: | |
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| Published: |
The MIT Press,
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| Publisher Address: | Cambridge, Massachusetts : |
| Publication Dates: | [2021] |
| Literature type: | Book |
| Language: | English |
| Series: |
Information policy series
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| Subjects: | |
| Summary: |
"This study of the political economy of rural broadband combines critical policy analysis with stories of rural Americans and offers solutions for solving the rural-urban digital divide"-- "As much of daily life migrates online, broadband--high-speed internet connectivity--has become a necessity. The widespread lack of broadband in rural America has created a stark urban-rural digital divide. In Farm Fresh Broadband, Christopher Ali analyzes the promise and the failure of national rural broadband policy in the United States and proposes a new national broadband plan. He examines how broadband policies are enacted and implemented, explores business models for broadband providers, surveys the technologies of rural broadband, and offers case studies of broadband use in the rural Midwest. Ali argues that rural broadband policy is both broken and incomplete: broken because it lacks coordinated federal leadership and incomplete because it fails to recognize the important roles of communities, cooperatives, and local providers in broadband access. For example, existing policies favor large telecommunication companies, crowding out smaller, nimbler providers. Lack of competition drives prices up--rural broadband can cost 37 percent more than urban broadband. The federal government subsidizes rural broadband by approximately $6 billion. Where does the money go? Ali proposes democratizing policy architecture for rural broadband, modeling it after the wiring of rural America for electricity and telephony. Subsidies should be equalized, not just going to big companies. The result would be a multistakeholder system, guided by thoughtful public policy and funded by public and private support." -- |
| Carrier Form: | xxii, 281 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages [217]-264) and index. |
| ISBN: |
9780262543064 0262543060 |
| Index Number: | HE7645 |
| CLC: | F631.0 |
| Call Number: | F631.0/A398 |
| Contents: | Series Foreword -- Introduction. Promise, Politics, and Policy: Broadband in Rural America -- The Struggle for a Wired America: A Brief History of Connecting the Countryside -- When Good Is the Enemy of Great: The Four Failures of Rural Broadband Policy -- The Rural Utilities Service: The Reluctant Regulator -- "It's Pretty Cool": Cooperatives, Municipalities, and Rural Connectivity -- The Jolly Green Giant Goes Digital: Broadband to the Farm and Precision Agriculture -- Conclusion: "Everything is Better with Better Broadband": Toward a National Rural Broadband Plan -- Notes. |