Report on rural places with high broadband utilization rates shows dramatic growth for businesses

Reliable and fast broadband service can bring revenue and jobs to rural areas struggling with poverty and shrinking populations due to few work opportunities, reports Kristi Eaton of The Daily Yonder. A new report from the Center on Rural Innovation "found that in areas with high adoption rates of broadband, self-employment increased by 10% or more."

Amanda Weinstein, director of Research at the Center on Rural Innovation, told Eaton, "For those communities with high broadband utilization, they saw a tremendous difference, specifically with entrepreneurship. We saw not just our businesses not closing, but new businesses opening. The difference was so stark that it was a 213% difference in the business growth rate.”

The town of Statesboro in Bulloch County, Georgia, hopes improving its broadband "will help the community break its pattern of persistent poverty," Eaton writes. "Serial entrepreneur Adam Tsang believes reliable, super-fast Internet is paramount for his Statesboro business, Whiskey Grail. He said that in today’s world, slow connections, even when temporary, have an outsized impact on businesses such as his."

Bulloch County has benefited from the dedication of its broadband service provider, which has installed high-speed fiber broadband service to 100% of the region's locations. Weinstein told Eaton, "What you see from Bulloch Solutions – they are a broadband service provider -- is really this commitment that everyone, and they mean everyone across the county, should have access to high-speed internet.”

Rural places that have successfully installed fiber broadband have seen positive financial shifts, which can make a big difference for the community's quality of life. The report states, "Counties that effectively utilize broadband are seeing marked improvements in local economic dynamism, suggesting that broadband can help mitigate the economic disadvantages often faced by rural areas."