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Small Towns Get Creative To Bring Broadband To Rural Areas

SparkFun Electronics
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Flickr Creative Commons

19 million Americans still don’t have access to broadband internet, including much of the High Plains region.

In this modern age, hundreds of small towns across America are essentially cut off from progress. Over the past few years, major American telecommunications companies have shown little interest in expanding broadband into rural America, saying such expansion isn’t cost effective.

As a result, reports Vice.com, rural America has resorted to building its own internet solutions. Many small towns across the U.S. have “banded together,” as it were, to bring high-speed internet to their communities.

Some counties are applying for grants, while others are crowdsourcing the cost of running cable to nearby cities. Often, a hodgepodge of methods is needed to get rural communities running on the information superhighway.