USDA study documents rural broadband benefits

Ask doctors what makes people healthy, and they’ll say eat your fruits and vegetables. Ask the experts what makes a rural community healthy, and the answer now squarely includes broadband. A new study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture documents Broadband Internet’s Value for Rural America.

The findings will hardly come as a surprise: Employment growth is higher and non-farm earnings greater in rural counties with a longer history of broadband availability. The study says that 70% of rural households with Internet service connect via broadband. The report also spotlights well-known deployment obstacles, such as low population size and widely dispersed populations over demanding terrain, that have proven stubborn barriers to sustainable, cost-effective broadband deployment in remote areas...