FCC, USDA Working on Rural Broadband

Rural communities are often overlooked by the big-name broadband service providers, but the federal government is taking steps to help those communitiesdeploy high-speed communications networks.

The FCC and USDA have been working on rural broadband all year--that is workshopping. The federal entities have been conducting a series of regional workshops to help promote and facilitate broadband networks in rural communities. (Last Mile initially reported on these workshops in June.)

The next FCC/USDA rural broadband workshop will be next week, Sep. 18, in Austin, Texas, at the University of Texas from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The workshop is free and attendees will be responsible for transportation, food and lodging.

This workshop is designed to provide communities, organizations and businesses in rural America seeking to bring the benefits of broadband to their communities with an opportunity to learn about the resources, programs and policies of the FCC and USDA. The topics to be covered include different technology platforms used to provide broadband services, USDA funding for broadband deployment, the Universal Service Fund, the FCC’s Rural Health Care Pilot program and wireless spectrum access. The workshop will also provide communities and organizations with an opportunity to share their experiences about broadband deployment in rural and hard-to-reach areas.

For additional information about the workshop, please visit the FCC’s Web site; send an email to ruralworkshop@fcc.gov; or contact Cecilia Sulhoff at (202) 418-0587 or Matt Nodine at (202) 418-1646. Further information on rural programs is available on the FCC/USDA Broadband Opportunities for Rural America Web site, at a local USDA Rural Development office and on the USDA’s Web site.

If any readers attend this or are planning on attending the next workshop in November, please let us know about it. How helpful was it? And what more would you have liked to know? Let us know in the comments or by e-mailing me, Brad Kramer, at bkramer@benjaminmedia.com.