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Tag: rural America

  • FCC Announces $9 Billion 5G Fund For Rural America

    FCC Announces $9 Billion 5G Fund For Rural America

    Rural America has traditionally lagged behind the rest of the country when it comes to wireless access. Get far enough off the beaten track and wireless coverage pales in comparison to urban environments.

    According to an announcement by the Federal Communications Commission, however, the 5G rollout may finally help close that gap. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai plans on establishing the 5G Fund to provide $9 billion to help carriers deploy 5G in rural areas, especially “areas with sparse populations and/or rugged terrain.” The fund will also use at least $1 billion for precision agricultural needs.

    “5G has the potential to bring many benefits to American consumers and businesses, including wireless networks that are more responsive, more secure, and up to 100 times faster than today’s 4G LTE networks,” said Chairman Pai. “We want to make sure that rural Americans enjoy these benefits, just as residents of large urban areas will. In order to do that, the Universal Service Fund must be forward-looking and support the networks of tomorrow. Moreover, America’s farms and ranches have unique wireless connectivity needs, as I’ve seen across the country. That’s why I will move forward as quickly as possible to establish a 5G Fund that would bring next-generation 5G services to rural areas and would reserve some of that funding for 5G networks that promote precision agriculture. We must ensure that 5G narrows rather than widens the digital divide and that rural Americans receive the benefits that come from wireless innovation.”

    If the FCC succeeds in narrowing the digital divide, it would be a boon for rural communities and households, where even wired high-speed internet lags behind. Widespread 5G access could open a world of economic possibilities for these areas.

  • Cities Safer Than Rural Areas, Shows Study

    Americans’ vision of the rural U.S. is often the idyllic Mayberry setting of The Andy Griffith Show. However, a new study has now shown that the rural U.S. can actually be more dangerous than U.S. cities.

    The study, to be published this week in the journal Annals of Emergency Medicine, shows that the risk of death from injuries is lower on average in urban counties than in suburban and rural counties. Overall, the risk of death from injuries was found to be approximately 20% lower in urban areas than in the rural U.S.

    “Perceptions have long existed that cities were innately more dangerous than areas outside of cities, but our study shows this is not the case” said Dr. Sage Myers, lead author of the study and a professor of pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine. “These findings may lead people who are considering leaving cities for non-urban areas due to safety concerns to re-examine their motivations for moving. And we hope the findings could also lead us to re-evaluate our rural health care system and more appropriately equip it to both prevent and treat the health threats that actually exist.”

    The study looked at over 1.2 million injury deaths from 1999 to 2006. Car accidents, firearms, and poisoning were found to be the top causes of injury-related death for the U.S. population. Deaths from car crashes were found to be twice as high in rural areas than in urban ones. Firearm-related deaths were higher for children and those over 45 in rural areas, but higher in urban areas for Americans age 20 to 44. Overall homicide rates are higher in urban areas, though suicide rates for those under 19 were higher in rural areas.

    “Cars, guns and drugs are the unholy trinity causing the majority of injury deaths in the U.S.,” said Myers. “Although the risk of homicide is higher in big cities, the risk of unintentional injury death is 40 percent higher in the most rural areas than in the most urban. And overall, the rate of unintentional injury dwarfs the risk of homicide, with the rate of unintentional injury more than 15 times that of homicide among the entire population. This has important implications about staffing of emergency departments and trauma care systems in rural areas, which tend to be underserved as it is.”

  • For $850K, This Company Will Bring Broadband Wi-Fi To Rural America

    The Internet is universally important to all Americans, and that’s especially true to rural Americans who are denied access to broadband Internet. The ISPs say it will cost too much to extend service to backroad homes and hard to reach areas in mountainous regions, but one company thinks all of that is a bunch of bollocks.

    GlobalWirelessPOD is a startup company that uses “proprietary wireless infrastructure to provide wireless broadband and collateral business services to small rural communities.” Their hope is to provide broadband Internet to the roughly 19 million Americans living in rural areas that can’t obtain access any other way. It’s a noble endeavor, but it will cost a bit of money to get going.

    The company has launched an Indiegogo campaign that asks for $850,000 to fund the next step of their plan. Here’s how the company is planning to bring Wi-Fi to rural Americans across the country:

    Over the past two years, the company has invested heavily in R&D to optimize software protocol thereby enhancing the ability of 802.11 platforms. The core strategic alliance is to merge with existing national and international rural stations and utilize its terrestrial infrastructure to deliver the bundled services and content. The infrastructure has been successfully tested and is used in limited areas benefiting rural schools and emergency services. The company started with two positive cash flow remote radio stations and internet radio in Iowa. GlobalWirelessPOD has identified multiple rural radio stations in the U.S. Midwest that are ready to align to the multipoint network.

    The company is in need of $ 800,000 to start the build-out, merges & acquisition of target rural stations and ramp up customer premise equipment (CPE) inventory . This includes globally scalable joint-ventures in Brazil, Philippines, Vietnam-ASEAN arena awaiting entry memorandum of agreements. If goal amount is not reached, a second round will commence combined with current positive cash flow. Proprietary and specific long range strategy are disclosed with a completed non-disclosure agreement to interested Pioneer Partners.

    For those who contribute, there’s a wide variety of rewards available in multiple tiers. The lowest tier starts at $11 and those who contribute this amount will receive a thank you note. Bumping your support up to $33 nets you a GlobalWirelessPOD ball cap. Upping your pledge will net you everything from a military grade unit jacket to a board meeting lunch with the folks at OpenWirelessPOD.

    There hasn’t been much money raised yet, but the campaign has just started. OpenWirelessPOD has 116 days left to raise $850,000, but its flexible funding campaign ensures that it will at least receive whatever money is pledged to the cause between now and the campaign’s conclusion.

    It’s going to take companies like GlobalWireless to get Internet into the hands of consumers as the FCC has done a rather terrible job so far in furthering its National Broadband Plan. The unwillingness of ISPs to actually foot the bill of extending service to those who need it most isn’t helping either.

    Those in Appalachia and other rural regions are constantly targeted as regions that need help, but rarely does that help ever come. It’s nice to see somebody working on campaigns to improve the lives of people living in these communities.