Stimulus money is helping rural America become fully plugged in to the Internet

[marmar]

EAST BURKE, Vt. (AP) – Up in rural northern Vermont, it took until the 1960s to run power lines to some towns — decades after the rest of America got turned on.

These days, it's the digital revolution that remains but a rumor in much of rural America.

Dial-up user Val Houde knows this as well as anybody. After moving here four years ago, the 51-year-old mother of four took a correspondence course for medical transcription, hoping to work from home. She plunked down $800, took the course, then found out the software wasn't compatible with dial-up Internet, the only kind available to her.

Selling items on eBay, watching videos, playing games online? Forget it. The connection from her home computer is so slow, her online life is one of delays, degraded quality and "buffering" warning messages. So she waits until the day a provider extends broadband to her house. ...............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110129/ap_on_hi_te/us_broadbanding_america

[Possumpoint]

1. There's Always The Option

of using a satellite hookup such as Hughsnet. Uploads are slow but downloads are acceptable.