[Commlist] New book: Farm Fresh Broadband

Ali, Christopher Fareed George is beyond excited to announce that the 
book, Farm Fresh Broadband: The Politics of Rural Connectivity 
<https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/farm-fresh-broadband>, is officially out 
today from MIT Press!

The book reflects on the rural-urban digital divide, asking why rural 
communities still lack basic access to broadband networks despite 
massive federal investment. It is a story both of policy failure and of 
community success.

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Summary

An analysis of the failure of U.S. broadband policy to solve the 
rural–urban digital divide, with a proposal for a new national rural 
broadband plan.

As much of daily life migrates online, broadband—high-speed internet 
connectivity—has become a necessity. The widespread lack of broadband in 
rural America has created a stark urban–rural digital divide. In Farm 
Fresh Broadband, Christopher Ali analyzes the promise and the failure of 
national rural broadband policy in the United States and proposes a new 
national broadband plan. He examines how broadband policies are enacted 
and implemented, explores business models for broadband providers, 
surveys the technologies of rural broadband, and offers case studies of 
broadband use in the rural Midwest.

Ali argues that rural broadband policy is both broken and incomplete: 
broken because it lacks coordinated federal leadership and incomplete 
because it fails to recognize the important roles of communities, 
cooperatives, and local providers in broadband access. For example, 
existing policies favor large telecommunication companies, crowding out 
smaller, nimbler providers. Lack of competition drives prices up—rural 
broadband can cost 37 percent more than urban broadband. The federal 
government subsidizes rural broadband by approximately $6 billion. Where 
does the money go?Ali proposes democratizing policy architecture for 
rural broadband, modeling it after the wiring of rural America for 
electricity and telephony. Subsidies should be equalized, not just going 
to big companies. The result would be a multistakeholder system, guided 
by thoughtful public policy and funded by public and private support.

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