Grant money also goes to real rural america (Score 2, Informative)

I am system administrator, as well as project manager for (Glenwood Telephone Company - the smallest independant telco in Georgia - www.gtconline.com) in Glenwood, Georgia (population ~~800 - average home income $16,000 a year) was awarded the Community-Oriented Connectivity Broadband Grant program by the United States Department of Agriculture / Rural Utilities Service as well. We have already successfully deployed this project to our area. The main portion of the grant funds that we were awarded 277,819 was used for the community center (www.thenetcenter.net)(10 computers [8 alienware area 51 systems and 2 Macintosh G5's, planning to add some linux pc's soon], however the remaining portion of this grant was used to deploy DSL within the city limits of Glenwood. While I can say that this helped our little company by aiding us in our broadband deployment there have been alot of other winners. The biggest winners in this so far have been the kids that now have somewhere to hang out, play games and use computers that they cannot afford to have, as well as have access to high tech equipment that the rural schools choose not to afford for them (only have 6 old computers per classroom). I must add however, another huge winner in this program was the critical care facilities (hospital, fire, police, city hall, schools within Glenwood) who get free broadband access for the first two years. Already our community center (thenetcenter.net) has a steady group of gamers coming in and they are helping us keep this project ongoing. Grants like this do indeed help out the smaller communities, and provide something other than just a local gas station to hang out in. As system administrator for Glenwood Telephone Company I can tell you that this was an excellent way to provide high speed Internet in our area. DS1's cost anywhere between $1300 a month to ~$4000 a month in our service area. What rural america can really use help in is getting backbone services cheaper to our area. Our telephone company's outside plant is among the best, if not the best in georgia (over 99% of our plant is underground and we deploy fiber constantly when doing new plant additions). Problem with deploying DSL in our area is that not many can afford it. This gets me into another problem I have that is really at the crux of the whole issue... the welfare society in america. People do not seem to realize that ISP's generally are a marginal profit business and I can guarantee you that our bandwith costs eat us alive. If we could have cheaper backbones to rural georgia we could definately see the "Rural Divide" narrow significantly. On another note even with the "subsidies" that our telco recieves with the Universal Service charge our customers would rather pay for cable TV anyday than to have a telephone or computer with internet access in their home (rural welfare society at its finest... another topic altogether). We are the atypical ISP. Many of our customers are the new computer users, average age 40+ who want to learn about computers and how they can make their lives more enjoyable. The beauty of rural america is its simplicity and access in rural america can make life simply more enjoyable. I sincerely hope that access can provide rural america the american dreams that many of them so desire. [steps off his soapbox]