Thanks to Amalia Anderson for sharing the Rural Internet and Broadband Policy Group’s Rural Broadband Principles and Policy Recommendations with me.

So the story is a bunch of smart people, who clearly understand the issues in rural America got together to talk about the implications of broadband in rural areas.

They came up with two straightforward goals:

The Rural Internet and Broadband Policy Group has two goals: 1) to articulate national broadband policies that provide opportunities for rural communities to participate fully in the nation’s democracy, economy, culture, and society, and 2) to spark national collaboration among rural broadband advocates.

And then they backed it up with principles and policy recommendations, “based on four main needs of rural communities: 1) accurate data on service availability and adoption, 2) locally‐owned infrastructure, 3) assistance in technology adoption, and 4) uniform and transparent federal policies.”

Here’s the refreshing thing – the big answer isn’t more money. Instead many of the recommendations revolve around sharing info and resources that already exist, or would not monumental to create such as accurate mapping, upping minimum speed defined as broadband, creating a database of transportation projects to allow broadband providers to recognize opportunities for open conduit. They are pro open access networks, pro net neutrality and pro transparency.

The report is only six pages and is well worth the time – it definitely cuts to the chase.