Minnesota Intelligent Rural Communities: Broadband as a Rural Development Strategy

By John C. Shepard, AICP, SW Regional Development Commission

America’s economy runs on broadband. Ninety five percent of small businesses that have computers have adopted broadband Internet service, according to US Small Business Administration studies. While a similar percentage of private households have access to broadband internet (2/3 have actually adopted broadband), that still leaves hundreds of thousands of small town and rural residents in states such as Minnesota without basic access to this essential element of 21st Century infrastructure.

The Minnesota Intelligent Rural Communities (MIRC) project aims to do something about that…

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