OH-18: Space (D) to Conduct Day-Long Summits on Rural Broadband Access

Freshman Congressman Zack Space (D-Dover) will make good use of the Memorial Day recess, holding two "Connect Appalachia" summits next Thursday and Friday to explore bringing high-speed internet access to rural areas of his district. Local leaders, telecommunications industry representatives, elected officials, a representative of the Governor's Office of Appalachia, and concerned citizens will discuss the barriers to progress and how to overcome them.

"Just as railroads in the 19th century and our interstate system in the 1950s represented revolutionary breakthroughs in transportation infrastructure, broadband represents the breakthrough for our generation," Space said in a press release. "We absolutely need wider access to broadband in order to attract new industries and jobs. The unfortunate reality is that much of southeastern Ohio lags behind the rest of the nation in the deployment of this technology."

The first summit will be Thursday, May 31st from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the OSU Extension Office in Jackson, Ohio, and the second will be Friday, June 1st, 2007 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Salt Fork State Park in Cambridge, Ohio. Contact Space's Dover office at 330-364-4300 or toll-free at 866-910-7577 for more information.

On a related note, the availability of broadband access through cable service is very much on the mind of the dean of Cleveland bloggers, Bill Callahan. This veteran advocate of fairness and universality in telecommunications service is keeping us informed about the problems with Senate Bill 117, a measure that would eliminate municipal cable franchises to clear the way for telecommunications giant AT&T to introduce statewide cable service, but AT&T's service would leave out many regions and communities across Ohio. Read Bill's invaluable posts here, here, and here.