Techdirt:Cheap Broadband For Wealthy Golf Communities Healing The Digital Divide?

"Both of the presidential candidates have spent some time talking up the need for universal broadband, even if neither seems to have a real plan to actually do that. However, a current attempt at providing subsidies to better provide broadband access in rural communities (where it appears broadband access has been growing rapidly anyway) is actually providing plenty of cash to a company providing broadband to wealthy planned golf communities in Texas. The official explanation is that the company involved got in line, and no one more deserving was in front of them. As the News.com article suggests, that's no excuse. If the money is earmarked for rural communities that can't afford broadband, and its going to wealthy suburban communities, then something is clearly wrong in how the plan was set up. Either someone isn't doing an effective job in finding the communities that really need it, or those communities don't need the money at all -- in which case it should be allocated to something a little more pressing than people buying million dollar homes on a golf course. "