We await a more definitive (and expert) view, but it appears that the court ruling this week finding that federal regulators had limited authority over Internet traffic will also slow deployment of broadband to rural areas. The New York Times wrote that "the national broadband plan released by the administration last month proposed to shift billions of dollars in money from a fund to provide phone service in rural areas to one that helps pay for Internet access in those areas. Legal observers said the court decision suggested that the F.C.C. did not have the authority to make that switch." 

The story coming out of the federal appeals court ruling is mostly about net neutrality, and, indeed, the court ruled that cable owner Comcast had the right to slow its customers' access to certain web services. (Net neutrality would force providers to treat all web sites equally.) But the ruling also affects the FCC's plan to roll out broadband services to rural areas.

Washington Post tech writer Cecilia Kang writes that FCC General Counsel Austin Schlick said in a blog post that "key aspects of the plan to bring affordable broadband connections will be hindered. Those include goals of bringing broadband to low-income and rural areas and getting those communities to adopt the technology. Experts say the FCC may not be able to convert a $8 billion phone subsidy to be used also for new broadband networks after the court’s decision." 

Education increases chances for employment. Distance learning increases educational opportunities for rural residents. Rural development these days means broadband and online classes.

The push is on to provide broadband connections to rural homes — and not just in the U.S. The Country Land and Business Association is lobbying the British government to help rural homes that are unable to get broadband. According to the BBC, there are up to 1.5 million homes in the United Kingdom that can't get adequate broadband. 

This BBC story has some interesting examples of how rural communities are coping with limited broadband access. In the village of Wray in Lancashire, farmers depend on a constricted broadband access for access to markets and government regulations and programs. "There's a rule there - an agreement that we all sign. So the kids know there's no gaming, no YouTube and iPlayer until after 5pm when the businesses have closed for the day and then it's a free for all," said Chris Conder. "Some nights it can go slow... but it's the best we can do at the moment." Conder has laid over a kilometer of fiber optic cable to hook up some neighbors to the network.

And on the Isle of Raasay, Paul Camilli (above) uses satellite. "It isn't by any means perfect, connection occasionally drops out and upload speeds can be pretty grim, but compared with what I was used to it's fantastic really," Mr Camilli said."Communication's always been a problem. For many years I didn't even have a phone."

Google has announced a new competition for super-fast fiber networks. Craig Settles explains what rural communities should consider before going after the megabits.