IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

To ensure continued success, however, Alabama must lay the proper technological foundation.

If all areas of our state are to reap the benefits of robust economic growth, we must make broadband, also known as high-speed Internet access, available to every resident. Currently Alabama ranks 43rd in the nation in personal computer ownership and 44th in Internet access.

Dr. RoseMary Watkins, director of Alabama Southern University’s Southern Normal Campus, has been working with ASU staff to secure grants that would make broadband possible for many rural residents.

“We are joining the South Central Alabama Broadband Consortium in applying for three grants that have been announced by the Department of Commerce,” Watkins said. “ASU joined the consortium in hopes of helping to create broadband access to underserved communities in Alabama. There is a large number of residents in this area that fall into the underserved category.”

Around 250 residents who couldn't afford life on the island without a steady fishing income left, hitting the community hard, said Ron Philemonoff, chief executive of the area's Native village corporation, Tanadgusix.

Five years ago, seeking some sort of economic foundation for the 500 or so people remaining, the corporation joined several Outside tribes in a Department of Defense demonstration program several years ago. Their mission? Turning reams of paper manuals into electronic files complete with AutoCAD drawings. The project promised to train a handful of St. Paul workers in the new field, and offered jobs for as many as 25 people.

“We are living in an increasingly digital world, where being connected to the Internet is essential to enhancing our quality of life. This newly completed map paves the way for technology which will create new jobs, increase Alaska’s economic competitiveness, and deliver services that have been previously unavailable to rural areas of the state,” said Commissioner Bell. “No matter where you live in Alaska, high-speed Internet enables access to quality employment, information, and vital services ranging from interactive telemedicine to distance education opportunities. Broadband gives you the opportunity to work from home, take classes online, and market products to the world - all of which have a positive impact on the local economy and quality of life.”

A combination of grant and loan money equaling $88 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will allow 65 communities in Alaska to undergo a major expansion of broadband Internet.

United Utilities, Inc. (UUI), an Anchorage-based telecommunications company, will provide middle mile broadband service to the communities through the Terrestrial Broadband in Southwestern Alaska project.

As many as 35,000 people in rural Alaska may lose Internet access, long-distance phone service or both for hours at a time this week because of a "zombie" satellite that has wandered off course and is expected to scramble the signals of the Bush's main telecommunications provider.

"Almost every single person out in rural Alaska uses one of those services somehow," said David Morris, spokesman for General Communication Inc.

The Obama administration awarded roughly $10 million on Tuesday to boost Internet access in Alaska libraries and improve Internet literacy and usage in the state's rural communities.

The two grants are a small part of federal stimulus legislation targeted to improve Internet access in parts of the United States where it remains poor. Via the stimulus, millions have already been awarded to private companies to improve commercial Internet access in rural Alaska.

Internet service for thousands of people in two Arizona Indian communities will get a healthy boost and state and tribal libraries will provide 200 computer stations for Arizona's workforce thanks to $15.7 million in stimulus announced Friday by the White House.

President Barack Obama said the government would provide grants and loans to invest in 66 new Recovery Act broadband projects nationwide. The $795 million in grants and loans through the Departments of Commerce and Agriculture are matched by more than $200 million in outside investment.

Dave Phillips of the University of Arkansas Community College at Hope, and Wesley Woodard with the Economic Development Council, have been key in organizing the county wide plan.

Experts worry that the National Broadband Plan, a mandate currently being considered by policy-makers as a way to bring broadband to every home, would create a digital divide, setting speed goals for rural areas that are 25 times slower than urban areas.

Such a divide would curtail rural educational opportunities such as distance learning and threaten consumer welfare by limiting rural telemedicine initiatives.

ulius Genachowski, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, has outlined his vision for broadband in the U.S.: delivering 100 Mbps connections to 100 million homes.As part of an update on the National Broadband Plan due before Congress in mid-March, Genachowski sketched out a plan that would keep the U.S. competitive with other nations and enable 90% of the population to have and use broadband, up from about 65% today.

Today too few rural Americans take advantage of the opportunities broadband provides. Only half of rural residents subscribe to broadband – compared to 65 percent nationwide – because too many communities in rural America don’t have adequate access to broadband infrastructure.

Internet Innovation Alliance Urges Congress to Establish National Commission on Telemedicine

The expansion of broadband internet service has facilitated the development of telemedicine technologies improving healthcare to more Americans at a reduced cost, according to a new study commissioned by the Internet Innovation Alliance (IIA). The report titled, “Advancing Healthcare Through Broadband: Opening Up a World of Possibilities” examines telemedicine and e-health trends and technologies.

Standing on the stage of the N.C. School of Science and Mathematics, Jay Dominick, vice chancellor of information technology at UNC-Charlotte, moderated a panel representing what the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) calls "community anchor institutions" – a key component to BTOP.

High-speed Internet access is becoming more common in Tennessee, but a digital divide still exists even in some of the state's fastest-growing and wealthiest counties.

The growth of broadband in Tennessee outpaces the national average, according to a recent report. Still, pockets around the Nashville area have no access to high-speed Internet, usually because they are too remote or still too sparsely populated for providers to consider them profitable.

The FCC devoted 25 pages to healthcare technology issues in the plan released last week, which calls for the nation to have 100-megabit Internet connection to 100 million U.S. homes by 2020.

Connected Nation, which started as a state program called ConnectKentucky, uses mostly state and some federal and private funding to stimulate broadband roll out. The nonprofit group says it has expanded broadband availability in Kentucky from 60 percent of households to 95 percent of households since January 2004.

Governor Schwarzenegger commissioned the Task Force back in November 2006, and the group was given the goals of making access universal, pushing the buildout of new broadband infrastructure, and driving the use of broadband-only applications.