Broadband Plan
Wednesday, September 28th, 2005
By Chris Fitzsimon
Our View: High-speed access to Internet can help poor counties
North Carolina’s rural communities can learn from an economic playbook that proved successful for developing countries. Rural residents can get wired and demand speed.
The Internet is where opportunity waits. The faster the access, the better. But not all rural residents can get broadband connection, which allows residents of remote spots around the world to compete with corporations or get contracts with them. If the Internet works for India and Singapore, then it can also work for towns in Cherokee and Anson counties.
In fact, it’s already happening.
The E-NC Authority’s effort to get high-speed access to rural counties is enjoying some success. North Carolina is ahead of the national average in giving residents high-speed access. That sparks local economies in two ways.
First, contract work offers real opportunities to the industrious, as it did for Utah’s at-home workers when JetBlue airline handed them its flight reservations work. In North Carolina, broadband connection made it possible for a rural Wilkes County man to become a bookkeeper for a Charlotte publishing house. (more…)
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