Telecommunications technologies have great potential for linking rural homes, schools, businesses, and government. Experts agree that rural development depends on investment in additional telecommunications infrastructure and on local access to the Internet, but getting advanced telecommunications services to rural areas will take time. This…

This report documents the status of information, computing, and telecommunications (ICT) technologies in the Appalachian region, assessing their potential relationship to economic growth and the federal, state, and local policies that influence their development. Key findings include the following. Leading producers of ICT products and services…

Telecommunications can reduce rural isolation, improve access to education and services, and increase business efficiency. But urban and international competition may limit telecommunications benefits for rural areas and may possibly widen the development gap. Still, telecommunications are an essential part of rural development strategy.…

High speed data services known as broadband have the potential to make rural areas less isolated and improve the rural quality of life, but physical barriers, sparse population density, and few markets present significant obstacles to their deployment in rural areas. Broadband applications such as e-commerce, distance education, and telemedicine…

The revolution in telecommunications technology will be a driving force in the future economic growth of rural areas. Federal and state universal service policies requiring delivery of service to rural areas were major factors in how the telephone system evolved during the 20th century. In the 1990s, telephone penetration rates were similar for…

In April 2000, over 250 rural leaders from around the nation gathered in Kansas City, Missouri, to discuss rural America's future, its challenges, and policies to meet those challenges. Conference participants agreed that the current pattern of uneven rural growth is likely to persist and that agriculture will remain a key sector in the rural…

American rural communities are decaying, the underlying causes being chronic unemployment and inadequate infrastructure. The information age can cause the ultimate demise of rural America by further eroding local institutions or it can be its savior by revitalizing the sense of community. The link between community development and the information…

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) offer opportunities for renewed development for many rural and remote areas that have long experienced economic decline and outmigration. But there is a risk of a territorial digital divide between urban and rural areas. Investments in telecommunications infrastructure and services tend to be…

In 1989-90 three Congressional hearings received testimony on the need for modern telecommunications infrastructure in rural areas and the ways such infrastructure could foster rural economic development. A researcher on rural development reported findings that deregulation policies had removed incentives for telecommunications companies to serve…

This book synthesizes and analyzes much of the theoretical and practical literature on rural economic development and related issues from the past two decades with the aim of initiating construction of a new model for U.S. rural development policy. Part I emphasizes the national and global context within which U.S. rural development must take…