Broadband Access: The new Rural Electrification
When I was a teenager in small-town Vermont, my family couldn’t get cable television at home. The technology was around, of course, it just wasn’t profitable for Adelphia to lay so much cable through all that nature for so few customers. Devastating for me at the time, but not, all in all, a big deal. Nowadays, however, there are similar rural communities all over the country that cannot get high-speed Internet connections for the same reasons—and that is a very big deal.
Because we use it as much for entertainment as for vital communication (I do, anyway), it is easy to see Internet access—especially broadband—as a luxury and not a necessity. Perhaps that used to be the case, but times have changed. Broadband is needed in all kinds of ways, just as electricity was needed when the Rural Electrification Act was passed in 1936:
- Kids need it. Much as I love Facebook and Hulu, the Internet is about far more than that, even for teenagers. Young people need broadband to study, communicate, and keep up with their connected peers. The later in life you begin to cross the digital divide, the longer the journey is.
- Farmers need it. On a farm, broadband is today what electricity was in 1936. Back then, farmers needed electricity to run new equipment such as threshers and milking machines. Now, they need the Internet to communicate with suppliers and customers, get weather updates and commodities information.
- Everyone else needs it. The way I see it, I wouldn’t have a job without my high-speed connection—I wouldn’t be able to find one! I need broadband to look for work, to keep in touch with networking contacts, and to research companies. My counterpart in a rural community, with dial-up or nothing, is at a definite disadvantage.
For all these reasons, I was glad to see this week that President Obama’s administration announced nearly $795 million in grants and loans for increasing broadband access all over the country, particularly for rural communities.
Obama has made a great start, but this funding comes from the stimulus bill—a one-time infusion of cash. Truly increasing broadband access will require a sustained effort, much like the Rural Electrification Act did. After all, it took us nearly 50 years to provide electricity and telephone service to most farms.
The focus on rural communities also narrows the scope. Broadband needs to be affordable as well as accessible. With an average monthly charge of $39, it’s not always enough to simply have the option there. A sustained effort could expand the scope to help out those families for whom broadband is too costly.
What do you think of expanding broadband access? Do you have a high-speed connection at home? Could you live without it (I couldn’t!)?
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