Internet to link rural areas, Wireless network will benefit remote W.Va. towns

PITTSBURGH - Many isolated Appalachian communities could put high-speed wireless Internet access to good use, connecting students toeducational resources not available at their local library andintroducing small businesses to a wider pool of potential customers.

But private companies, such as phone and cable providers, don'tsee a financial incentive to establish wireless broadband networks inplaces like Perryopolis or Glenville, W.Va., information technologyanalysts say. The population in the rural sections of Appalachia istoo sparse, and the topography is too rugged.

So Carnegie Mellon University's Center for Appalachian NetworkAccess, with the help of $250,000 from the Appalachian RegionalCommission and the Benedum Foundation, plans to set up two wirelessbroadband networks in isolated communities - the first in Glenville,W.Va., the small, 2,000-resident seat of Gilmer County.

"Wireless Internet means that geographic isolation can no longerkeep rural communities from conducting commerce with the greaterworld," said Bruce Maggs, an associate professor of computer scienceat Carnegie Mellon University and a co-founder of the center.

A few places in the town about 160 miles south of Pittsburgh and85 miles north of Charleston, W.Va., such as Glenville State Collegeand the library, have broadband access, which allows the Internetuser to transmit large amounts of data and images faster.

But the rest of the community, including households and smallbusinesses, has no choice but to use dated and costly dial-up servicethat's hundreds of times slower than broadband access.

"Many people don't realize that dial-up in rural areas is not asgood as in urban and suburban areas," said Mike Hernon, the founderof the Hemingway Group and a consultant for the Appalachian RegionalCommission. "The phone lines work for telephone calls, but they'reoften too 'dirty' for dial-up access."

Investment banker John Whitehill, a co-founder of the Center forAppalachian Network Access, said he thinks the project could have adramatic effect on education and business in Glenville and the siteof the second network, which will likely be in Fayette County.

If students want to study an obscure subject or there aren'tenough students in one high school to justify hiring additionalteachers, administrators could use the wireless broadband networks toconnect students and teachers in schools miles away from one another,Whitehill said.

"Why do I need 12 French teachers? I could use four Frenchteachers and a bunch of assistants and save the district real money,"Whitehill said.

The new network could save small business owners time when theytry to buy supplies or sell their goods and services online, Maggssaid. It should also encourage webmasters to create more complex Websites - something that was more difficult to do with dial-upservices.

Subscribers should have access to the network by the end of theyear, Maggs said. Subscriptions could be as low as $20 a month.

"It's like we're giving them electricity and we're turning thelights on," Whitehill said. "Life is fine in Glenville, but we couldopen up a whole new world for them."