The Debate on Rural Broadband

Another interesting read from the Daily Yonder on the stimulus plan and 2 possible scenarios for rural broadband.  The debate rages between two strategies – incentivizing broadband deployment either with the big telecoms taking the stimulus money or not.  In the argument, I’ve yet to hear what those advocating an alternate deployment strategy think will work.  Community broadband initiatives have rarely been successful.  The zinger, however, that I do tend to agree with:

“The telecos [telephone companies] and cable companies aren’t building the kinds of networks that are going to take us to the next generation of work,” said Benjamin Lennett, senior program associate with the New America Foundation.