FEDERAL PROGRAM CONNECTING FEWER RURAL RESIDENTS TO BROADBAND

摘要

A steadily dwindling number of customers have received broadband service through the Agriculture Department's Rural Utilities Service loan and grant programs over the past nine fiscal years, government data show. Loan and grant programs begun under the Clinton administration connected 315,000 customers in fiscal 2001, but that number is projected to drop to 23,000 in 2009, USDA annual reports show. Shifting loan qualifications and complex application procedures drive many applicants away, according to Government Accountability Office and Congressional Research Service reports and interviews with those familiar with the process. "Applications take a tremendous amount of time and money to prepare," said Christopher McLean, a consultant with e- Copernicus and former RUS official. nnSome applications are at least five or six inches thick, and they can take a long time to process, he said. The 2008 farm bill tries to make it easier to apply, by giving the department authority to reduces the costs and paperwork for first-time applicants of loans and loan guarantees, particularly small companies and start-up Internet providers. To receive a grant, a project must serve a rural area with 20,000 or fewer residents and no broadband service. It must offer free basic service, defined as 200 kbps upstream and downstream to all community facilities. The program requires that a recipient put up a 15 percent match against government money. Since the RUS broadband loan program began, $81 million in grant money has been distributed to 166 communities.