In this magazine-style piece, I showed how lack of broadband access affects rural communities. Of course, the news peg was a deadline to apply for money from the federal stimulus package for broadband.

With the state’s help, an increasing number of residents in rural Washington County in Down East Maine are using high-speed Internet connections to run their blueberry farms and lobster fleets, educate their children and communicate with doctors from remote areas.

But it’s a large county and its 34,000 residents are spread out: At twice the size of Rhode Island, it takes four hours to cross in a car, and yet there’s only one traffic light. That means it’s slow going for local Internet provider, Axiom Technologies, which is working town by town to set up wireless access points, sometimes serving as few as 12 households per connection.

Axiom maxed out financially some time ago to expand on its own, even as other towns asked to join the broadband network. The state stepped in and awarded Axiom grants of $750,000 over the last three years, said CEO Susan Corbett.

“With 38 additional towns, by the end of 2009, we will have created an umbrella over all 2,500 square miles” of the county, Corbett said.

Go here for the full story on Stateline.org.