Comment on 1930s electricity coops takes Internet initiative

Allamakee-Clayton cooperative general manager Paul Foxwell said high speed Internet connections could spur development and stem the flow of young people to the cities. The group last year decided to offer broadband in response to frustrations on farms, ranches and small towns that being unconnected hurts business, hampers access to health care and leaves students behind. Farmers in central Missouri were stuffing notes into their electric bills asking whether the 25,000-member Co-Mo could do anything to help with broadband, the cooperative's General Manager Ken Johnson said. The Federal Communications Commission estimates 39 percent of America's rural population is without access to fixed broadband at a benchmark speed of 25 Mbps for downloads and 3 Mbps for uploads, compared to 4 percent in urban areas. Fiona Arnold, the director of the state's Office of Economic Development and Trade, said policy makers are concerned that the digital disconnect is increasing the "divide between haves and have nots, between rural and urban." Broadband companies that answer to shareholders say scattered populations and difficult access make business unprofitable in much of rural America. "Distance, density and terrain are always factors," said Mark Soltes, assistant vice president for public policy and government affairs for CenturyLink, the telecommunications firm which provides internet service in Colorado.