Rural Internet

Rural Internet describes the characteristics of Internet service in rural areas (also referred to as "the country" or "countryside"), which are settled places outside towns and cities. Inhabitants live in villages, hamlets, on farms and in other isolated houses. Mountains and other terrain can impede rural Internet access.

Internet service in many rural areas is provided over voiceband by 56k modem. Poor quality telephone lines, many of which were installed or last upgraded between the 1930s and the 1960s, often limit the speed of the network to bit rates of 26kbps or less. Since many of these lines serve relatively few customers, phone company maintenance and speed of repair of these lines has degraded and their upgrade for modern quality requirements is unlikely. This results in a digital divide.

High-speed, wireless Internet service is becoming increasingly common in rural areas. Here, service providers deliver Internet service over radio-frequency via special radio-equipped antennas.

Methods for broadband Internet access in rural areas include:

In the United States

The United States Department of Agriculture’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."[2]

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."[3] 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.[4]

In 2011 the Federal Communications Commission proposed to use the Universal Service Fund to subsidize rural broadband Internet services.

A membership association, NTCA - The Rural Broadband Association, comprising nearly 850 independent rural American telecommunications companies in forty-four states, was formed with the goal of improving communications services in rural America.[5]

In Canada

In Canada, when pressed by Member of Parliament David de Burgh Graham, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities did not see access to the internet a right.[6] Telecommunications co-operatives like Antoine-Labelle provide an alternative to big Internet Service Providers.[7][8]

In Spain

In Spain, the Guifi.net 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 already has internet access. There have also been cases in which the own city council has invested in the infrastructure.

In the United Kingdom

In the UK, the government aimed to provide superfast broadband (speeds of 24Mbit/s or more) to 95% of the country by 2017.[9] In 2014, a study by the Oxford Internet Institute found that in areas less than 30 km (20 mi) from large cities, internet speed dropped below 2Mbit/s, the speed designated as "adequate" by the government.[10]

Frustrated by the slow progress being made by private telecoms companies, some rural communities have built their own broadband networks, such as the B4RN initiative.[11]

Internet of Things

Due to poor telecommunication access in most rural areas, low-energy solutions such as those offered by Internet of Things networks are seen as a cost-effective solution well-adapted to agricultural environments.[12][13][14] Tasks such as controlling livestock conditions and numbers, the state of crops, and pests are progressively being taken over by m2m communications. Companies such as Sigfox, Cisco Systems and Fujitsu are delving into the agricultural market, offering innovative solutions to common problems in countries such as the U.S., Japan, Ireland and Uruguay.[15][16][17][18]

See also

Notes
  1. "Microsoft wants all of rural America to get high-speed broadband". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2017-07-15.
  2. "Communications & the Internet in Rural America." (June–July 2002). Agricultural Outlook . pp. 23-26. Retrieved December 30, 2008.
  3. "Internet on the Range." (February 2006). Amber Waves. Retrieved December 30, 2008.
  4. Stenberg, Peter L. (July 2006). "Infrastructure in Rural Areas: Telecommunications." ‘’Profitwise News and Views Special Edition’’. pp 33-36. Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Retrieved December 30, 2008.
  5. "NTCA". Archived from the original on 2018-12-09.
  6. "House of Commons Industry Committee on Nov. 30th, 2017". openparliament.ca.
  7. "Canada's House of Commons Debates of May 22nd, 2018". openparliament.ca.
  8. "Canada's House of Commons Industry Committee on May 16th, 2019". openparliament.ca.
  9. "Broadband Delivery UK - Detailed guidance - GOV.UK". www.gov.uk. Retrieved 2016-01-15.
  10. "Outside the cities and towns, rural Britain's internet is firmly stuck in the 20th century". The Conversation. Retrieved 2016-01-15.
  11. reporter, Sebastian Moss Business. "Want rural superfast broadband? Do it yourself". BBC News. Retrieved 2016-01-15.
  12. Smith, Amanda. "The Internet of Sheep: Farmers in Wales Are Extending The Concept Of IoT". WT Vox. WT Vox. Retrieved 27 May 2015.
  13. Alleven, Monica. "Sigfox, Texas Instruments collaborate to deliver Internet of Things solutions". FierceWireless. FierceWireless. Retrieved 27 May 2015.
  14. Newenham, Pamela. "New dawn for farm tech: sowing the Internet of Things into agriculture". The Irish Times. The Irish Times. Retrieved 27 May 2015.
  15. EGERTON-READ, Seb. "INTERNET OF THINGS COULD BE A PART OF NEW ERA FOR FARMING". Circulate News. Circulate News. Retrieved 27 May 2015.
  16. Crozier, Ry. "Why food could be the future of the internet of things". itNews. itNews. Retrieved 27 May 2015.
  17. Goldstein, Phil. "Cisco: Wi-Fi, cellular data to make up 67% of all IP traffic in 2019". FierceWireless. FierceWireless. Retrieved 27 May 2015.
  18. Davies, Wyre. "Uruguay's world first in cattle farming". BBC News. BBC News. Retrieved 27 May 2015.
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