Reliable broadband service is one of the key ingredients for job-creation in the 21st Century, and Sen. Sean Burrage, a DLCC Board Member, is working hard to make sure his rural Oklahoma district doesn’t get left behind.

Last week, Burrage lent his star-power to a meeting between AT&T and local officials in Pryor, Oklahoma to help determine the fastest way get broadband available in Pryor:

Key officials met at City Hall on Monday morning to discuss Internet upgrades in Pryor and surrounding areas.

Senator Sean Burrage, Representative Ben Sherrer and Oklahoma Corporation Commissioner Dana Murphy were among those attending the informal meeting. They joined Mayor Jimmy Tramel, Lucy Belle Schultz, Barbara Hawkins, Bruce Taylor, John Hawkins and others to hear from AT&T representatives.

AT&T Director – Regulatory Jason Constable, and Craig Cromley, Area Manager, were there to discuss broadband service in general and to field questions on how Pryor can be progressive regarding Internet service availability.

As telecommunications evolve, it takes time for the latest advances to reach every part of the country, but Pryor is on its way. Three quarters of the town is now DSL-capable, though upgrading to a 3G or 4G network remains a challenge.

With the benefits of a global marketplace and potential new job development at stake, Sen. Burrage is determined to help Pryor and all of rural Oklahoma meet that challenge successfully.

Broadband is one technology sector that could get a major boost from the federal recovery package, and state lawmakers are already researching ways to put the federal money into use.

As currently written, the stimulus bill in Congress would appropriate between $6 and $9 billion to upgrade America’s Internet with the goals of both increasing penetration to areas not currently served and upgrading existing networks.

As the Christian Science Monitor reports, these kinds of improvements provide demonstrable economic boosts:

Put $5 billion into broadband expansion and 100,000 new jobs in telecom and information technology materialize within a year of the money being spent, according to the Communications Workers of America (CWA), using data from the Department of Commerce. Once built, the economic gifts keep coming: Every percentage point increase in broadband penetration raises employment 0.2 to 0.3 percent, according to the Brookings Institution.

Cognizant of the benefits, lawmakers in North Carolina are currently debating the best service for mapping broadband penetration in the state.