Rural Internet describes the characteristics of Internet service in rural areas (also referred to as "the country" or "countryside"), which are settled places outside towns and cities. Inhabitants live in villages, hamlets, on farms, and in other isolated houses. Mountains and other terrain can impede rural Internet access. High-speed, wireless Internet service is becoming increasingly common in rural areas. Here, service providers deliver Internet service over radio-frequency via special radio-equipped antennas. Methods for broadband Internet access in rural areas include:
Mobile Internet (broadband if HSPA or higher) Hybrid Access Networks Power-line Internet Terrestrial Wireless Internet Satellite Internet ADSL loop extender Internet of Things White Space Internet
Digital divide Scholarship on the topic of the digital divide has shifted from an understanding of people who do and do not have access to the Internet to an analysis of the quality of Internet access. Because opting out of Internet activity is no longer a choice with Internet-only customer service, online banking, and online schooling, Internet access has become an increasing need in rural communities with inadequate infrastructure. Although government programs such as E-rate provisions provide Internet connection to schools and libraries under the U.S. federal government, more general Internet access to a broader community has not been directly addressed in policy. The provision of "national" Internet services tends to favor urban metropolitan regions. For a long time, many within the U.S. considered the Internet to be a luxury. In 2001, then FCC Chair Michael Powell said, "I think there's a Mercedes divide. I'd like to have one. I can't afford one," when asked about solutions to shrinking the digital divide. At the time, the Internet was still largely new, as more than half of the U.S. lacked access to any home Internet. In 2021, 77% of Americans had home broadband according to a Pew Research Center survey from that year. The attitude in the U.S. has largely shifted since Powell's remarks, however, as under the current administration and President Joe Biden there is a common belief that "broadband is infrastructure" and that it must be treated as such. The digital divide is even more prominent in developing countries, where physical access to Internet services is at a much lower rate. While developed countries such as the U.S. face the challenge of providing universal service (ensuring that everyone has access to Internet service in the home), developing countries face the challenge of providing universal access (ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to make use of the Internet). For example, in Egypt there are only about six phone lines per 100 people, with less than two lines per 100 people in rural areas, which makes it even more difficult for people to access the Internet.
In the United States The United States Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service has provided numerous studies and data on the Internet in rural America. One such article from the Agricultural Outlook magazine, "Communications & the Internet in Rural America", summarizes Internet use in rural areas of the United States in 2002. It states that "Internet use by rural and urban households has also increased significantly during the 1990s, so significantly that it has one of the fastest rates of adoption for any household service." Another area for inclusion of the Internet is American farming. One study reviewed data from 2003 and found that "56 percent of farm operators used the Internet while 31 percent of rural workers used it at their place of work." In later years, challenges to economical rural telecommunications remain. People in inner city areas are closer together, so the access network to connect them is shorter and cheaper to build and maintain, while rural areas require more equipment per customer. However, even with this challenge the demand for services continues to grow. In 2011, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proposed to use the Universal Service Fund to subsidize rural broadband Internet services. In 2019, the FCC estimated that only 73.6% of the rural population had access to broadband services at 25 Mbps in 2017, compared to 98.3% of the population in urban areas. However, many studies have contested the FCC findings, claiming a greater number of Americans are without access to Internet services at sufficient speeds. For instance, in 2019 the Pew Research Center found that only about two-thirds of rural Americans claimed to have a broadband Internet connection at home, and although the gap in mobile technology ownership between rural and urban adults has narrowed, rural adults remain less likely to own these devices. One study in particular examined the ways in which inaccessibility for rural and "quasi-rural" residents affects their daily lives, conceptualizing issues of accessibility as a form of socioeconomic inequity. By using Illinois as a case study—a state with both urban and rural environments—the authors demonstrate how the rural-urban digital divide negatively impacts those who live in areas that fall between the two distinct categories of rural and urban. Interviews with residents from Illinois describe "missed pockets," or areas in which service installation is not available or far too expensive. This inaccessibility leads many to experience sentiments of social isolation as residents feel disconnected from current events, cultural trends, and even close friends and family members. Internet access inequalities are further deepened by public policy and commercial investment. In 2003, The Information Society published an article explaining how exchange areas and local access transport areas (LATAs) arrange citizens into markets for telecommunication companies, which centralizes access rather than encouraging businesses to cater to more remote communities. These areas were created through regulatory measures intended to ensure greater access and are perpetuated by investment patterns as more disparate communities hold less potential for profits, thus creating "missed pockets."
In Canada In Canada, when pressed by Member of Parliament David de Burgh Graham, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities did not see access to the Internet as a right. Telecommunications co-operatives like Antoine-Labelle provide an alternative to big Internet service providers.
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