Broadband important for rural areas, groups say...

Without broadband, Becky Collins would be out of business. Collins, owner of Granny B's Clothesline, said she was able to leave her job filing out Medicare forms and start her own children's clothing business because of broadband availability in Homer, Louisiana, population 3,800. Collins, who started out selling dresses to friends, left her Medicare paperwork job in 2006.

Collins, speaking at a broadband policy forum sponsored by the Internet Innovation Alliance (IIA), called on U.S. lawmakers and private groups to continue to push for broadband in rural areas. Our downtown is virtually dead, Collins said. If I opened a business in downtown Homer ... maybe five people a day might come into my store. Now, I have customers from around the world. The broadband forum came as two U.S. agencies, the U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the Rural Utilities Service (RUS), get ready to distribute US$7.2 billion for broadband deployment beginning later this year...