Rural Internet

Rural Internet is the access to the Internet from 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.

Most rural access to Internet is voiceband by 56k modem, but poor phone lines in many rural areas, many of which installed or last upgraded between the 1930s and the 1960s, may limit actual download speeds to 23-26k or less. Since many of these lines serve relatively few customers, phone company maintenance and speed of repair of these lines has actually degraded and their upgrade for modern quality requirements is unlikely. This results in a digital divide.

Methods for broadband Internet access in rural areas include:

In the United States