Stimulus-funded broadband projects are making most happy, some a little worried in rural America

"Government stimulus spending is a contentious issue right now in Washington. But the $7.2 billion in the last stimulus package for extending high-speed Internet access is just beginning to be spent, and the beneficiaries could not be happier," reports Susanna G. Kim of The New York Times.

Examples Kim cites: A horse farmer in western Kansas "will be able to download a photograph of a horse to show a potential buyer in seconds, not the 20 to 30 minutes they now need with dial-up service," and in Alaska's remote Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, "the program will bring more fundamental changes, expanding the health care options, for example, to allow doctors in Anchorage, 400 miles to the east, to see patients via videoconference."

Kim tells Times readers what Rural Blog readers already know: "The types of Internet activities that most Americans take for granted — watching videos, downloading songs, social networking — are out of reach for millions of homes across the United States. . . . For some of the beneficiaries, the program will literally mean the difference between isolation and being connected to the rest of the world."

But as the total amount of grants and loans passes $3 billion, some beneficiaries worry about unintended consequences: An organic farmer and natural-foods grocer in Kansas worries that his customers will abandon him for online bargains, and small communications utilities getting the grants and loans may soon have to compete with national providers that can offer lower rates.

And some will still not have broadband, so the Federal Communications Commission "is proposing that money from its Universal Service Fund, which currently subsidizes telephone services for high-cost areas, low-income consumers, schools, libraries and rural health care providers, be expanded to broadband services," Kim notes. (Read more)