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Community Connect Grant
Rural America
has been the foundation that this nation was built on and has
been one of the fundamental elements for the strongest and healthiest
economy in the world. The agricultural sector of the economy propelled
the nation and enabled it to reach out in different directions,
fostering the Industrial Age to create great achievements that
surpassed many others in the industrialized world. Today's Information
Age - the successor of the Industrial Age it can be argued - is
now enabling us to repay rural America for its hard work, drive,
and devotion to making this the most prosperous nation in the
world.
Many challenges
face rural Americans, the students, citizens, and businesses. Children
growing up on our farms and in our rural towns are entitled to the
best education our nation can provide. Our rural citizens should
not have to endure inadequate health care that diminishes the quality
or length of their lives. And why would we let our economy grow
leaps and bounds in our cities and information centers, leaving
behind those that forged the basis of it? We shouldn't and we won't.
With today's information infrastructure and communications, we can
create new opportunities in our rural communities. We can provide
lifesaving treatments for the ill. And enable our rural students
to compete on an international level of high achievement, not just
a state or national level. The same spirit and drive of those living
in rural America that started our national odyssey will serve as
the backbone of rural America's "new beginning" in today's
digital odyssey.
RUS continues to provide many programs
for financing rural America's telecommunications infrastructure.
The "traditional" infrastructure loan program, consisting
of hardship, cost of money, Rural
Telephone Bank, and guaranteed loans, provides financing
of broadband and other advanced services. Since 1995, every telephone
line constructed with RUS financing has been capable of providing
broadband service using digital subscriber loop (DSL) technology.
The Distance Learning and Telemedicine
program continues its charge to wire our schools and improve health
care delivery in rural America.
RUS has been given
the challenge to administer several new and developing programs
for improving the quality of life in rural America. The Broadband
Program, a loan program designed specifically to increase the
rate of deployment of technology to small towns in rural areas has
enabled RUS to step beyond its traditional definition of rural (towns
of 5,000 or less), and fund borrowers serving communities of up
to 20,000 inhabitants. Another program, the Weather
Radio Grant Program, provides funding for weather radio
transmitters in rural areas. This has provided early warning systems
in rural areas that are saving lives.
The dedicated borrowers
of the RUS telecommunications program have been hard at work for
over 50 years, providing solutions to problems associated with serving
rural America. Progress is being made and there are successes being
achieved everyday. Rural carriers are providing more access and
a higher deployment rate of access every day. The deployment of
advanced service by rural carriers is truly impressive. RUS hopes
to help those carriers continue that trend through its financing
programs.
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