Broadband is on the way
By Casey Eitner, from Castleton, Va
We have started a “Space Force” and made a pinpoint landing on Mars, but we also have school children forced to sit in parking lots of fast food restaurants to get the internet they need to do their homework. About one in four families in rural Virginia has no internet connection from their home. And the problem is not just for students. It limits being able to:
work from home,
expand businesses on-line,
get better access to agricultural pricing and production data,
communicate with healthcare providers,
shop online for food and essentials, and
interact with friends and family.
Well, help is on the way. The stimulus bill recently passed by Democrats in the House and Senate has already set aside $23 billion for internet access, including $6 billion to pay families in financial need up to $50 in subsidies for their monthly internet bills, $7 billion to help schools furnish the devices students need to complete their classwork, and $10 billion in infrastructure spending that states and local governments can put toward improving broadband in their communities. It will be up to us to urge our local officials and state representatives to make sure that gets done.
President Biden has also proposed $100 billion under his infrastructure plan to dramatically expand access and lower costs of broadband, with a priority for rural areas that need it most. It aims to bring Internet service to areas where it doesn’t exist, and to improve speeds where connectivity is poor. It also calls for extending the interim broadband subsidies from the stimulus bill for families struggling to pay their monthly internet bills.
Democrats have long advocated for federal spending to address this “digital divide”, but they keep running into opposition from some who question whether the government should be involved in the private market and in non-traditional infrastructure. Unfortunately, most large companies prefer to sell existing broadband customers more bandwidth, speed and services than to provide internet to new rural customers that really need it.
Broadband experts agree that there is no way for rural areas to get access to reliable, high-speed, internet without government help. So funding and partnerships with government may be the only option for rural communities like ours.
