This article detailing a Pew study on Rural Broadband caught my eye. Interesting statistics including that, as of last fall US Rural broadband at home reached 24% up big time from the 9% of 2003. Suburban dwellers achieved 39% penetration up from 22% in 2003. Not having access seems the main impediment. There are some demographic differences and disparities in income and education that result in slightly different usage statistics for those who do have broadband. But the variance is modest. So why is this important? Well, for service providers it means that rural customers want broadband pretty much as bad as anyone else. It also means there is fallow opportunity to take before large providers get around to it. Unserved is still the easiest market to take. Granted rural markets are low-density and that means your business case has to be looked at with a laser beam (or your budget with a laser scalpel). Still there is money to be made here…for a while. One clear note that sounds to me is that the window of opportunity is closing and closing much faster than before. Go get 'em guys. Tim Sanders  tim@thefinalmile.net  www.thefinalmile.net  www.wimaxglobalnews.com