With the view that high-speed Internet access is a necessity for modern commerce and communication, a Carnegie Mellon University professor has launched a project to bring wireless broadband service to disadvantaged areas of rural Appalachia.

		Today Various experts will discuss rural broadband access in the region at a meeting from noon to 4 p.m. today in CMU's Wean Hall.

The first pilot effort is under way in the small town of Glenville, W.Va., about 160 miles south of Pittsburgh. The project is being funded by grants from the federal Appalachian Regional Commission and the Benedum Foundation, each of which contributed $125,000.

The money also will be used to finance a second pilot in a community in southwestern Pennsylvania, most likely in Fayette County. The final site selection should be made within the next few months, according to Bruce Maggs, associate professor of computer science who along with Pittsburgh investment banker John Whitehill established CMU's Center for Appalachian Network Access this year.

The center's goal is to bring high-speed Internet access to depressed Appalachian communities and raise the literacy and fortunes of the region.

"There is a gut feeling communities are being left behind if they don't have a modern telecommunications infrastructure," Maggs said yesterday.

"They're being left behind by not being able to compete as well from a business standpoint."

While the vast majority of urban areas have access to high-speed Internet service -- either through phone companies, cable TV providers or both -- in many rural areas, slow-as-molasses dial-up service is the only option.

For businesses, trying to sell goods or services on a Web site through a dial-up connection can be as maddeningly old-fashioned as a cashier adding up purchases by hand.

Customers trying to use the site "get frustrated and leave," Maggs said, which can cause depressed areas such as Glenville to fall further behind economically.

"I don't imagine there are very many businesses in urban areas that don't have high-speed network access," he said. "The networking we will provide is old hat to the rest of the world."

Like many small rural communities, Glenville is ignored by commercial Internet providers, he said.

The Glenville system, which will be based at Glenville State College, should have its first subscribers online in two to three months, he said.

Acknowledging that few of the town's 2,000 residents even have a personal computer, Maggs said initial target subscribers would be schools, libraries, government agencies, community groups and religious organizations that need the system to conduct video conferencing and download documents and educational materials.

"There are organizations that are paying very expensive prices for their own dedicated [high-speed] lines. Prices are so astronomical, businesses or residents can't afford it," he said.

Maggs said it was too early to say exactly how much subscriptions on the nonprofit network would cost, but that prices would be "rock bottom," probably no higher than $20 a month.

So far, the project has generated huge enthusiasm in Glenville, Maggs said.

"I'm a believer that high-speed networking is a good thing and it opens up opportunities," he said.

"Wireless Internet means that geographic isolation can no longer keep rural communities from conducting commerce with the greater world."