By Amy Glynn Hornick, News @ Cisco

Austin, Texas - June 11, 2002 - Cisco Systems has teamed with the technology community in Texas to highlight the opportunities that high-speed, always-on broadband Internet access offers for rural and other small communities.

Rural Texas communities now have access to a new online tool kit - www.LoneStarbroadband.org -- for bringing broadband to under-served areas. LoneStar Broadband, which was sponsored by the Public Utility Commission (PUC) of Texas, is an ongoing policy research project and web site designed to serve as a connectivity toolkit for under-served communities in Texas. The site is the work of graduate students at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Austin at Texas.

This online 'how-to' site educates people living in rural areas on the uses and advantages of broadband and helps them begin building broadband communities of their own. It is generally acknowledged that the marketplace, in time, will largely take care of the broadband needs of cities and urban areas, but that rural areas will need a broadband boost. This new site can help bring 21st technology to rural and underserved areas in Texas and other states.

Broadband access in rural and remote areas has the potential to improve local economies, as well as education, healthcare and other public services. LoneStar Broadband will help level the playing field, ensuring that traditionally under-represented rural communities get the broadband access they need to capitalize on the potential of the Internet. The site offers case studies of ways that real communities have gained access to broadband through ingenuity, technology and grit. Other communities can learn from these examples.

LoneStar Broadband is being unveiled today, to community, policy and industry leaders at the LBJ School. Cisco is co-hosting the forum with the LBJ School, TechNet and AeA. This meeting will serve as a springboard for finding broadband solutions in rural markets. Leaders will discuss broadband access - its economic and social boons to local communities and the current challenges facing these communities. Panelists are PUC Commissioner Brett Perlman; Gary Chapman, director of The 21st Century Project at the LBJ School; Dirk Jameson, executive director of the Texas Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund; Sally Rawlins, a small business owner from Sanderson, Texas; and Michael J. Weir, a director for Cisco's Internet Business Solutions Group.

The panel discussed the importance of leveraging existing resources to improve broadband access and the importance of grassroots efforts and cooperation among organizations and individuals.

Research indicates that economic gains resulting from broadband access for rural Texas communities can be in the millions of dollars. Healthcare now relies heavily on telemedicine, just as education relies on distance learning and libraries help their communities have access to new sources of information. Other benefits of broadband include access to important public programs and databases, advertising for tourism, arts and entertainment, and coalition building in key industries such as food and agriculture. These will be increasingly available in rural/remote communities as broadband access to the Internet is improved.

Broadband technology enables communities to better take advantage of the opportunities in today's global marketplace. LoneStar Broadband can provide important guidance for small communities in Texas and beyond.