Text: Sen. Daschle Says Rural Areas Need Internet Access

(South Dakotan urges expansion of high speed telecommunications)(860)

Senator Tom Daschle, a Democrat from South Dakota, is calling for federal support of initiatives to provide rural areas with high speed Internet services. At an October 27 forum he convened in Washington with three panels of experts from across the country, Daschle said the government must ensure that people outside urban areas are able to keep pace with the social and economic changes brought on by telecommunications advances.

"These new services are not only transforming how we live, but they are fueling rapid changes in the worldwide economy," Daschle said. "The more Americans who are able to take part in the telecommunications revolution, the stronger our economy - and our society - will be." The South Dakota lawmaker spoke at a Washington conference where government and business telecommunications experts discussed strategies for expanding telecommunications services.

In response to Daschle's concern, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, William Kennard, another conference participant, said he'll speed up a planned assessment of the effectiveness of U.S. telecommunications policy.

Following is the Daschle press release:

(begin text)

Office of Senator Tom Daschle

October 27, 1999

DASCHLE TELLS NATIONAL CONFERENCE THAT ENTIRE COUNTRY HAS STAKE IN HELPING RURAL AMERICA GAIN ACCESS TO HIGH-SPEED INTERNET SERVICES

-- Mitchell Native Helps Press Case to Erase "Digital Divide" At Daschle Event

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Senator Tom Daschle told a conference of telecommunications experts today that the entire country has a stake in ensuring that high-speed Internet services come to rural America as quickly as they do to other areas of the country, saying the federal government should put resources behind efforts to ensure that rural communities are not caught on the wrong side of a "digital divide."

Daschle made his statements at a national forum he convened Wednesday to discuss efforts to ensure that rural Americans are not left behind as new telecommunications technologies are developed and deployed. The event included Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman William Kennard and three panels of experts from across the country who discussed the economic imperative that high-speed Internet services come to rural communities as quickly as possible.

"These new services are not only transforming how we live, but they are fueling rapid changes in the worldwide economy," Daschle said. "This country can't afford to let a "digital divide" put rural America at a significant economic disadvantage. The more Americans who are able to take part in the telecommunications revolution, the stronger our economy -- and our society -- will be."

Wednesday's event was part of an ongoing effort initiated by Daschle and a coalition of Democratic Senators to create incentives for companies to bring high-speed Internet services to rural areas, to fund those incentives, and to ensure that national telecommunications policy meets the needs of rural America. Last month, the group brought together CEOs from major telecommunications companies to discuss their strategies for investing in rural America.

Federal Telecommunications Policy to Be Re-Assessed

Because of the fast pace of change in the telecommunications industry, FCC Chairman Kennard told Daschle Wednesday that he will speed up efforts to reassess how current federal telecommunications policies affect rural America. Specifically, he said that at Daschle's request, he will formally ask that a panel of federal and state experts -- charged with assessing the effectiveness of national telecommunications policy -- convene earlier than 2001, when it is now scheduled to begin meeting.

"Senator Daschle and his colleagues have been exactly right when they have told me that the demand for these services is out there right now and we can't afford to wait until 2001 to convene this joint federal-state board," Kennard said. "Next week, I'll formally request that the joint board convene early, so that we can keep apace of these changes in the world of high-speed Internet services."

Mitchell Native Urges Federal Telecommunications Policies to Help Rural America

Rural telecommunications specialist Larry Thompson, of Mitchell, South Dakota, who participated in the conference, said millions of Americans live in rural communities and because of geographic disadvantages, they actually need the Internet more than someone living in an urban area.

"Rural areas often have limited public libraries, smaller schools, and too few consumers to support significant variety of retailers," Thompson said. "The Internet has the ability to remove the geographic distances between a student and a library, a retailer and a customer, or a farmer and his seed dealer."

He said federal resources were valuable in bringing telephone service to rural America, and are needed again to provide high-speed Internet services to the same communities. These "universal service" resources would help improve the telecommunications infrastructure in rural areas that is needed to support the new services.

"We need to do everything we can to unlock the potential that the Internet has for rural America," Daschle said. "With the rapid pace of change, we will need a public-private partnership to ensure that no community is left behind."

(end text)

(Distributed by the Office for International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State)