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The Commerce Secretary talks rural broadband

All my talk about the changes that broadband access in the US?   The Commerce Secretary held a roundtable Wednesday where this was exactly discussed.   Quoting generously from Axios, Gina Raimondo led the discussion leaders and female business owners to discuss broadband access and economic empowerment.

Raimondo highlighted a JPMorgan Chase Institute study that found that women are more likely to use platforms like Airbnb, Etsy or eBay, than transportation platforms like Uber or DoorDash.

Airbnb co-founder and chief strategy officer Nathan Blecharczyk said women make up 60% of the hosts for the home rental company, and described WiFi as a critical amenity. “Having connectivity in these rural areas empowers hosts to participate,” Blecharczyk said.

eBay CEO Jamie Iannone said that rural business is outpacing urban business in three-quarters of states.

Why do we care?

And everything described providers would power.   There’s a space in even those micro-businesses.. but more importantly, it’s my experience that most press simply isn’t digging into the services businesses that spring up and instead focusing on those consumer ones.

Thus, the same surge seen around Etsy or eBay sellers can be seen in small business growth… and why we care about broadband investment.