Rural markets need backbone stimulus

While many observers have been discussing where broadband stimulus funding is needed and which access technologies service providers are likely to use to reach their end users, investment further up the line in the network backbone should not be forgotten. Investing in fiber network backbones will provide more backhaul capacity for all the new mobile broadband and municipal wireless usage that will arise in previously under-fed rural markets.

Still, for rural service providers, buying backbone capacity from a larger carrier can be an expensive proposition. So why not allocate some of the broadband stimulus money to projects that specifically target rural companies or consortia addressing the backbone improvements for rural markets? The American Cable Association tells Network World it is interested in doing exactly that, and other experts have suggested that federal stimulus program administrators encourage rural applicants to link their grant applications in pursuit of such projects.

For more:
- Network World has this report [1]

Related articles
Broadband stimulus program details are trickling out [2]
Stimulus has been called one aspect of a national broadband plan [3]