The most startling fact that has emerged in the argument for greater communications capacity in the North Country is that a fiber-optic cable can carry 10 trillion times the information the first phone line could handle. That affords us an idea of how sophisticated the industry has become over the past century or so.

It also tells us that, with that kind of potential being exploited in other parts of the world, we will very quickly get buried by competition if we don't keep up. Industries old and new will spurn our region as they look for areas in which to expand if we can't offer them all the opportunities for growth that they would find elsewhere. Why would a company choose the North Country if it is missing key ingredients taken for granted at a competing site -- some of those ingredients being a ready workforce; reliable transportation, including air service; and fiber-optic cable?

Thus, the news was welcome that the Federal Communications Commission has agreed to provide $7 million to establish a fiber-optic network connecting this region's hospitals and colleges to enhance health care. It is a serious beginning of a broadband initiative designed to put the North Country in the front lines in the battle for prosperity.

Overall, the entire broadband initiative will cost between $14 million and $50 million, depending on how much fiber-optic cable is deployed, according to a news release from Howard Lowe, the director of economic development at Plattsburgh State's Technical Assistance Center and project director of CBN Connect. CBN Connect is the project that is trying to establish a region-wide fiber-optic network.

The FCC grant is a very significant stride in establishing that service, but it is even more than that: It is a bold step in improvement of health care. The hospitals and colleges in the region will be connected via fiber-optic cable so that, far down the road, patients will be able to be treated and monitored without actually being in the hospital. In some cases, consultations will be able to be made from distant hospitals and medical offices by means of information fed through the new fiber-optic lines.

Critically ill patients will be able to be monitored round the clock without doctors having to be present in their rooms. Health care will be enhanced, and costs will be cut dramatically.

While that is going on, the fiber-optic lines will be available for connection with other uses as they become available -- also looking into the future, when broadband is widely available. Those lines will be an inducement for prospective businesses and industries that may be thinking of establishing a presence in the North Country.

Without this service, our prospects for future prosperity would be severely limited.

The public at large may hear of this development and have only a filmy view of its true impact on the region. The industry is so new that, around here, it is only vague goal with benefits that are only imagined.

But the opportunities are real. We must have it or fall hopelessly behind.