Editor, Gazette-Journal:

People who live in the city sometimes take internet access for granted. But if you live in a rural county, you may not be able to get access. There are programs that exist on the state and federal level that could help broadband internet access be brought to rural communities. You have to know about the programs and the proper way to access them before they could be of help with economic development. Sen. Mark Warner and others inserted an amendment to the 2012 Farm Bill to focus the government’s existing rural broadband program on truly rural areas in need of broadband. Grants are provided by The Rural Utility Service, through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to work on rural broadband issues. It helps to provide grants to counties seeking to establish broadband connections in such areas.

According to Warner’s press release, many loans and grants haven’t gone to rural areas. USDA’s inspector general found in 2009 that a number ...