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"Rural broadband expansion is the most critical technological infrastructure challenge that this country has faced since the Rural Electrification Act of 1936 was signed into law in 1936," notes Acting Rural Utilities Service (RUS) Administrator Chris McLean, while discussing the need to address the nearly 40 percent of rural consumers who lack access to broadband. Rural areas where business and residential consumers use broadband service are more likely to enjoy higher incomes, lower unemployment rates and stronger growth than those without broadband. Because broadband offers rural areas connectivity to business, education, health care and other services necessary for economic growth, it is rapidly becoming indispensable in all sectors of the economy. Rural electric co-operatives across the country are increasingly involved in rural broadband deployment. There is growing concern about the lingering urban-rural broadband divide and who will work to deliver broadband to rural communities.