Ask people in Osborne, Kansas; Booneville, Arkansas; or New Mexico's Mescalero Indian Reservation about killer broadband applications and you'll get a variety of answers that all boil down to the same thing-revitalizing the local community. From telemedicine to distance learning to generating new business opportunities, communities nationwide have experienced firsthand the benefits of modern telecommunications infrastructure.

In the pages that follow, we profile six infrastructure initiatives and the people who made them happen. "The goal of a telecommunications project should be to invigorate the community by providing essential services or stimulating economic growth," writes Victor Glass, director of demand forecasting and rate development for the National Exchange Carriers' Association, who served as a judge for the first America's Network Community Impact awards program. Glass adds that an innovative coalition of buyers and sellers can often be important to the success of an economic development program focused on telecom.

A quick review of our honorees supports that view. Read on to learn how local telcos partnered with community leaders to obtain funding and make initiatives viable. Our congratulations to all parties involved for their efforts. We are delighted to have the opportunity to honor their achievements.

America's Network would also like to thank Victor Glass and our other two judges-Shirley Bloomfield, vice president of government affairs and association services for the National Telephone Carrier's Association and Nancy Kaplan, vice president, Adventis-for their participation in making our first Community Impact awards program a success.

Kansas: Bringing business opportunities to the heartlandInitiative:To bring high-speed connectivity to remote Osborne, Kansas

Economic benefits:Helped existing companies build and retain business and jobs, helped incubate new home-based businesses

Infrastructure:Community-wide fiber-to-the-premises

Service provider:Nex-Tech, the CLEC arm of Rural Telephone Service Co., Inc.

Key parties:City of Osborne, local community leaders

Funding:Rural Utilities Service broadband loan

With a population of 1730 (and 90 miles away from the nearest larger town) Osborne, Kansas has a surprisingly high number of businesses-more than 100, according to Jeff Wick, chief operating officer of Nex-Tech, the competitive local exchange carrier arm of Rural Telephone Service Co., Inc.

Nex-Tech's Wick: "For small towns to survive, they must be given a level playing field"

Helping to support those businesses is a fiber-to-the-premises network that Nex-Tech completed in 2003. That network lets plastics molding company Osborne Industries transfer bulky CAD files to customers nationwide without the glitches that the company previously experienced. High-speed file transfer capability also helps cabinet-maker Tishlerei better serve its customers. And several home-based businesses are selling jewelry and other items over the Internet, often through home pages built using a template provided by Nex-Tech and hosted at no extra charge when people sign up for high-speed service.

"When you look at the small communities in our area, we see population declines that are astonishing," says Wick. "For small towns to survive, they must be given a level playing field. Our strategy is to offer building blocks to level that playing field."

Osborne is the third community in the area where Nex-Tech has done a complete overbuild of the incumbent telephone company's network. "After we got the first one built, we got calls from other communities saying, 'Can you look at bringing the same services to our community?'"

Several Osborne businesses rely heavily on Internet sales

Osborne was a prime candidate because Nex-Tech already delivered cable television to the town over a hybrid fiber coax network, which provided fiber connectivity to the outside world. The company did a feasibility study, which revealed that the project could be viable if 70% of potential customers signed up for service.

Nex-Tech had its first meeting with community leaders in the spring of 2001. Based on local leaders' enthusiasm and commitment, Nex-Tech opened a sales office in Osborne (hiring Osborne residents to staff it) in the fall of 2001. By December, the company had reached the required 70% commitment level. Today's take rate is 95%.

"We started construction in the spring of 2002," says Wick. "In the spring of 2003, we finished conversion and cutover."

Osborne mayor George Eakin believes the high-speed network already has helped retain jobs in the community. "For Osborne Industries and for a local chemical wholesaler and seed packaging plant, the high-speed network has meant that sales and engineering could stay here, rather than being farmed out elsewhere," says Eakin.

High-speed connectivity to the local hospital and local school is also benefiting the community by enabling distance learning and telemedicine applications.

- Joan Engebretson