  This paper explores commonalities between the creation of the Rural
Electrification Administration and the similar dilemma of providing an
affordable infrastructure for high-speed Internet access in places where profit
incentives do not exist. In the case of the R.E.A., the necessity for an
aggressive federal initiative to wire rural America, where the market for
electricity had failed, is revisited as the missing incentives are identified
and explored. We then examine the incentive-poor similarities between rural
electrification and rural high-speed Internet access through how consumers
currently and prospectively gain access to broadband Internet service. The
regulatory environment created by the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and the
Federal Communications Commission is considered. Although the FCC is required
(Section 254.b.3) to take regulatory measures to ensure comparable and
affordable access to the Internet for all Americans, the historical
similarities and comparative analysis of rural electrification and high-speed
Internet access suggests the goal of universal service is unlikely to be met in
the near future. Regulatory disincentives to build such networks are present,
driven in part by market realities and in part by competitive restrictions in
the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Finally, we pose the question of whether a
federal effort equivalent to the R.E.A. is needed to ensure that residents of
sparsely populated areas, like their predecessors in the 1930s, are not
comparatively disadvantaged in the first decades of the 21st century. The paper
concludes with a proposal to accelerate the deployment of broadband
infrastructure in rural America.
