Broadband Stories

For educators, few moments are more rewarding than seeing students suddenly light up in an “I get it!” revelation. Thanks to multimedia learning experiences now available via high-speed broadband networks, it’s a scene that’s becoming more common in classrooms – and in homes – around the U.S.

Lisa Maxwell remembers when pencils, textbooks and a calculator were just about the only requisites students needed to get homework done. But Maxwell, who is Executive Director of the non-profit Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Oregon (BGCCO), says success in and outside the classroom now depends on a new tool of student achievement: broadband Internet access.

In the “Lower 48,” the buzz about broadband usually revolves around speed: how many data megabits per second (Mbps) rocket up and down the network. In Alaska, broadband data rates are important, but there’s another performance indicator that’s getting lots of attention.

As of April 2012, 66 percent of U.S. adults had Internet access from home via a high-speed broadband connection, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

A 2011 survey of manufacturing companies in Northwest Minnesota turned up a startling finding: 25 percent of available jobs were left unfilled because of a shortage of skilled workers, particularly in the fields of science, engineering and production.

In western and central Kansas, the cable company Eagle Communications has built broadband networks in agricultural communities as small as Bird City (population 446) and Milford (545).

For low-income families that want to join the Internet revolution, two big impediments often stand in the way: the cost of a modern computer, and the cost of high-speed Internet access that enables connectivity to a modern, digitally powered world.