Rural Internet
Encyclopedia
Rural Internet is the access to the Internet
from rural
areas (also referred to as "the country" or "countryside"), which are settled places outside towns and cities. Inhabitants live in village
s, hamlet
s, on farm
s and in other isolated house
s. Mountain
s and other terrain
can impede rural Internet access.
Most rural access to Internet is voiceband
by 56k modem
but poor phone lines in many rural areas, many of them installed or last upgraded between the 1930s and the 1960s, may limit actual download speeds to 23-26k or less. Since many of these lines serve relatively few customers, phone company maintenance and speed of repair of these lines has actually degraded and their upgrade for modern quality requirements is unlikely. See digital divide
.
Methods for broadband Internet access
include:
’s Economic Research Service
has provided numerous studies and data on the Internet in rural
America. One such article from the Agricultural Outlook magazine, Communications & the Internet in Rural America, summarizes internet uses in rural areas of the United States in 2002. It indicates, "Internet use by rural and urban households has also increased significantly during the 1990s, so significantly that it has one of the fastest rates of adoption for any household service."
Another area for inclusion of the Internet is American farming
. One study reviewed data from 2003 and found that "56 percent of farm operators used the Internet while 31 percent of rural workers used it at their place of work." In later years challenges to economical rural telecommunications remain. People in inner city
areas are closer together, so the access network
to connect them is shorter and cheaper to build and maintain, while rural areas require more equipment per customer. However, even with this challenge the demand for services continues to grow.
In 2011 the Federal Communications Commission
proposed to use the Universal Service Fund
to subsidize rural broadband Internet services.
project has been for some people the only alternative to get access to the Internet. Usually, neighbors are the responsible to collect the necessary money to buy the network equipment that will do a Wireless link with another zone that has already internet. There have also been cases in which the own city council has invested in the infrastructure.
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
from rural
Rural
Rural areas or the country or countryside are areas that are not urbanized, though when large areas are described, country towns and smaller cities will be included. They have a low population density, and typically much of the land is devoted to agriculture...
areas (also referred to as "the country" or "countryside"), which are settled places outside towns and cities. Inhabitants live in village
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
s, hamlet
Hamlet (place)
A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...
s, on farm
Farm
A farm is an area of land, or, for aquaculture, lake, river or sea, including various structures, devoted primarily to the practice of producing and managing food , fibres and, increasingly, fuel. It is the basic production facility in food production. Farms may be owned and operated by a single...
s and in other isolated house
House
A house is a building or structure that has the ability to be occupied for dwelling by human beings or other creatures. The term house includes many kinds of different dwellings ranging from rudimentary huts of nomadic tribes to free standing individual structures...
s. Mountain
Mountain
Image:Himalaya_annotated.jpg|thumb|right|The Himalayan mountain range with Mount Everestrect 58 14 160 49 Chomo Lonzorect 200 28 335 52 Makalurect 378 24 566 45 Mount Everestrect 188 581 920 656 Tibetan Plateaurect 250 406 340 427 Rong River...
s and other terrain
Terrain
Terrain, or land relief, is the vertical and horizontal dimension of land surface. When relief is described underwater, the term bathymetry is used...
can impede rural Internet access.
Most rural access to Internet is voiceband
Voiceband
In electronics, voiceband means the typical human hearing frequency range that is from 20 Hz to 20 kHz. In telephony, it means the frequency range normally transmitted by a telephone line, generally about 200–3600 Hz. Frequency-division multiplexing in telephony normally uses...
by 56k modem
56K modem
56k modems are voiceband modems nominally capable of download speeds up to 56 kbit/s . In the late 1990s, they were the most popular access method for personal Internet usage, but their use had declined as broadband technologies such as DSL gained wider availability.-Speed:The 56 kbit/s...
but poor phone lines in many rural areas, many of them installed or last upgraded between the 1930s and the 1960s, may limit actual download speeds to 23-26k or less. Since many of these lines serve relatively few customers, phone company maintenance and speed of repair of these lines has actually degraded and their upgrade for modern quality requirements is unlikely. See digital divide
Digital divide
The Digital Divide refers to inequalities between individuals, households, business, and geographic areas at different socioeconomic levels in access to information and communication technologies and Internet connectivity and in the knowledge and skills needed to effectively use the information...
.
Methods for broadband Internet access
Broadband Internet access
Broadband Internet access, often shortened to just "broadband", is a high data rate, low-latency connection to the Internet— typically contrasted with dial-up access using a 56 kbit/s modem or satellite Internet with inherently high latency....
include:
- Mobile Internet (broadband if HSPAHigh Speed Packet AccessHigh Speed Packet Access is an amalgamation of two mobile telephony protocols, High Speed Downlink Packet Access and High Speed Uplink Packet Access , that extends and improves the performance of existing WCDMA protocols...
or higher) - Power-line Internet
- Satellite Internet
- ADSL loop extenderADSL loop extenderAn ADSL loop extender or ADSL repeater is a device that a telephone company can place midway between the subscriber and central office to extend the distance and increase the channel capacity of their DSL connection...
In the United States
The United States Department of AgricultureUnited States Department of Agriculture
The United States Department of Agriculture is the United States federal executive department responsible for developing and executing U.S. federal government policy on farming, agriculture, and food...
’s Economic Research Service
Economic Research Service
The Economic Research Service is the main source of economic information and research from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Located in Washington D.C., the mission of ERS is to inform and enhance public and private decision-making on economic and policy issues related to agriculture, food,...
has provided numerous studies and data on the Internet in rural
Rural
Rural areas or the country or countryside are areas that are not urbanized, though when large areas are described, country towns and smaller cities will be included. They have a low population density, and typically much of the land is devoted to agriculture...
America. One such article from the Agricultural Outlook magazine, Communications & the Internet in Rural America, summarizes internet uses in rural areas of the United States in 2002. It indicates, "Internet use by rural and urban households has also increased significantly during the 1990s, so significantly that it has one of the fastest rates of adoption for any household service."
Another area for inclusion of the Internet is American farming
Agriculture in the United States
Agriculture is a major industry in the United States and the country is a net exporter of food. As of the last census of agriculture in 2007, there were 2.2 million farms, covering an area of , an average of per farm.-History:...
. One study reviewed data from 2003 and found that "56 percent of farm operators used the Internet while 31 percent of rural workers used it at their place of work." In later years challenges to economical rural telecommunications remain. People in inner city
Inner city
The inner city is the central area of a major city or metropolis. In the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Ireland, the term is often applied to the lower-income residential districts in the city centre and nearby areas...
areas are closer together, so the access network
Access network
An access network is that part of a telecommunications network which connects subscribers to their immediate service provider. It is contrasted with the core network, which connects local providers to each other...
to connect them is shorter and cheaper to build and maintain, while rural areas require more equipment per customer. However, even with this challenge the demand for services continues to grow.
In 2011 the Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
proposed to use the Universal Service Fund
Universal Service Fund
The Universal Service Fund was created by the United States Federal Communications Commission in 1997 to meet Congressional universal service goals as mandated by the Telecommunications Act of 1996...
to subsidize rural broadband Internet services.
In Spain
In Spain, the Guifi.netGuifi.net
guifi.net is a free, open and neutral, mostly wireless telecommunications community network, with over 21.400 nodes, of which more than 14.000 are operational, about 18.400 km of wireless links. The majority of these nodes are located in Catalonia but the network is growing in other parts of the...
project has been for some people the only alternative to get access to the Internet. Usually, neighbors are the responsible to collect the necessary money to buy the network equipment that will do a Wireless link with another zone that has already internet. There have also been cases in which the own city council has invested in the infrastructure.
See also
- Dial-up Internet access
- Broadband Internet accessBroadband Internet accessBroadband Internet access, often shortened to just "broadband", is a high data rate, low-latency connection to the Internet— typically contrasted with dial-up access using a 56 kbit/s modem or satellite Internet with inherently high latency....
- CoverageCoverage (telecommunication)In telecommunications, the coverage of a radio station is the geographic area where the station can communicate. Broadcasters and telecommunications companies frequently produce coverage maps to indicate to users the station's intended service area. Coverage depends on several factors, such as...
- Flat fee
- Internet in the United StatesInternet in the United StatesThe Internet in the United States grew out of the ARPANET, a network sponsored by the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the U.S. Department of Defense during the 1960s...
- Open Access NetworkOpen Access NetworkAn open-access network refers to a horizontally layered network architecture in telecommunications, and the business model that separates the physical access to the network from the delivery of services. In an OAN, the owner or manager of the network does not supply services for the network; these...
- Rural electrificationRural electrificationRural electrification is the process of bringing electrical power to rural and remote areas. Electricity is used not only for lighting and household purposes, but it also allows for mechanization of many farming operations, such as threshing, milking, and hoisting grain for storage; in areas...
- Rural free delivery
- ASTRA2ConnectASTRA2ConnectASTRA2Connect is a two-way satellite broadband Internet service available across Europe, which launched in March 2007, and uses the ASTRA series of geostationary satellites...
example rural satellite internet system
External links
- InternetforEveryone.org
- “Rural Telecommunications Briefing Room.” (February 9, 2006). Economic Research Service. Retrieved December 30, 2008.
- “Telecommunications Resources.” (August 22, 2008). National Agricultural Library. Rural Information Center. Retrieved December 30, 2008.
- Rural Satellite Internet Providers in the United States
- Rural Satellite Internet Provider in Central America