While Roanoke, Va., was recently designated the top digital city among similar-sized cities, its media market ranks last in the nation when it comes to high-speed Internet access. "The households in 25 Virginia counties that make up the Roanoke/Lynchburg designated market area ended last in a ranking of 79 U.S. markets for broadband use, according to New York-based Scarborough Research," reports Jenny Kincaid Boone of The Roanoke Times. "Only 29 percent of the adults in the market have high-speed Internet connections in their homes, according to the report compiled from August 2006 to September 2007."
The report said that nationally broadband access quadrupled between 2002 and 2007. Officials told the Times that the report is not good news for economic development. "It's very important to have widespread availability and affordability of broadband, especially from the home [for telecommuters]," said Andrew Cohill, president and chief executive officer of Design Nine, a Blacksburg company that provides consulting for broadband and telecommunications planning. He also said the disparity in broadband use is related to factors of access, education and income.
Cost can be a significant hurdle even when broadband is available. In remote Highland County, DSL service has been available for the past three years, but use has jumped since the Highland Telephone Cooperative dropped the monthly price from $42 to $19.95. High-speed Internet can provide new job opportunities in these areas, such as the 160 sales representative jobs retailer HSN aims to fill this year in the Roanoke area. These sales reps will work from home and must have a high-speed connection to apply. (Read more)
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