The Center for Rural Strategies, Appalshop, Access Humboldt, the Benton Foundation, the California Center for Rural Policy, and the Main Street Project (collectively The “Rural Broadband Policy Group”) files these comments in the above captioned proceeding.
The attached “Rural Broadband Principles and Policy Recommendations,” in its present form as submitted, constitutes the comments and recommendations of the above listed organizations. The Rural Broadband Policy Group consists of organizations dedicated to rural broadband, rural development, or are otherwise involved in digital inclusion policies.
Rural America is vast and diverse. Sixty million Americans, or about 20 percent of the population, live in
the countryside on 80 percent of the nation's land. While such a large area belies easy characterization,
nonmetropolitan areas do share a common set of concerns and features that bear directly on
communications policy.
