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COPYRIGHT 2001 The Dallas Morning News
Byline: Jim Landers
Feb. 21--WASHINGTON--First it was the railroads. Then it was the interstate highway system. One farming hamlet would be on the corridor to commerce, while others ate their dust.
Today it's the fast lane to the Internet that has rural communities worried.
Auto dealers complain about the hours spent downloading specification manuals for new cars that manufacturers will no longer put in the mail. Business boosters in Kenedy, Texas, say three companies looking to relocate kept on going because the latest in telecommunications technology was not available.
"For a community to provide this kind of service ... is no guarantee that you're going to have economic development. However, if you don't have it, you're guaranteed those prospects are going to go somewhere else," said Claiborn Crain, a spokesman for the Agriculture Department's Rural Utilities Service.
The Rural Utilities Service is lending $770 million to rural broadband providers this year. Congress, after two years of study, is weighing a bill that would give those companies tax credits for as much as 20 percent of their investment.
The Texas Legislature is poised to take up a package of incentives its sponsors hope will make...
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