Corraling the Capitol
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Connecting in Rural America
In urban and suburban America, it's easy to take advantage of high-speed Internet access. It's available everywhere: at home, at the office, at the local Starbucks. In fact, we are so spoiled that some of us even get put out when we aren't able to get online on an airplane.
In rural America, though, broadband Internet access is still a luxury. Because the population density is low, it is difficult for service providers to recover equipment costs, and rural customers may have to purchase expensive equipment to get connected. The consequences of this speak for themselves: according to the most recent USDA census, less than 32 percent of the nation's farms have broadband connections.
Why is it so important that our farmers have high-speed Internet access? Running a farm today doesn't mean throwing some seeds in the ground and waiting for crops to grow. Today's farmer is a businessman, and he relies on modern marketing and technologies to compete in the marketplace and keep his business running smoothly. Producers need Internet access to check market fluctuations on commodity prices, purchase inputs and make sales online, obtain government reports on supply and demand estimates, stay up-to-date on the weather, and a lot more.
And providing rural America with high-speed Internet access doesn't just help farmers; the results flow to the rest of the country as well. According to Connected Nation, a non-profit group based in Washington, DC, just a seven percent increase in broadband penetration in underserved U.S. communities could stimulate our economy by more than $134 billion.
Lawmakers realize the importance of high-speed Internet in rural areas, too, and have worked to increase that access.
Connecting our rural communities and our farmers and ranchers to high-speed Internet and getting those in the heartland off of outdated, slow dial-up connections is important not only to moving our economy forward but also to allowing Americans to choose to live and work in rural America.
Unfortunately, rural America is once again facing a threat from decision makers in Washington that could stand in the way of Internet access in rural communities. Last May, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced a proposal that could force high-speed Internet transmission to be subject to additional government regulations, thereby stifling investment and forcing consumers to foot higher bills for service.
As a result, progress on important initiatives like the National Broadband Plan has slowed, investors are discouraged, and the digital gap between urban and rural America is growing.
The expansion of broadband Internet access is an important tool in the development of rural America. And the future of the farmers and ranchers who provide our nation's food and fuel increasingly depends on it.
In urban and suburban America, it's easy to take advantage of high-speed Internet access. It's available everywhere: at home, at the office, at the local Starbucks. In fact, we are so spoiled that some of us even get put out when we aren't able to get online on an airplane.
In rural America, though, broadband Internet access is still a luxury. Because the population density is low, it is difficult for service providers to recover equipment costs, and rural customers may have to purchase expensive equipment to get connected. The consequences of this speak for themselves: according to the most recent USDA census, less than 32 percent of the nation's farms have broadband connections.
Why is it so important that our farmers have high-speed Internet access? Running a farm today doesn't mean throwing some seeds in the ground and waiting for crops to grow. Today's farmer is a businessman, and he relies on modern marketing and technologies to compete in the marketplace and keep his business running smoothly. Producers need Internet access to check market fluctuations on commodity prices, purchase inputs and make sales online, obtain government reports on supply and demand estimates, stay up-to-date on the weather, and a lot more.
And providing rural America with high-speed Internet access doesn't just help farmers; the results flow to the rest of the country as well. According to Connected Nation, a non-profit group based in Washington, DC, just a seven percent increase in broadband penetration in underserved U.S. communities could stimulate our economy by more than $134 billion.
Lawmakers realize the importance of high-speed Internet in rural areas, too, and have worked to increase that access.
Connecting our rural communities and our farmers and ranchers to high-speed Internet and getting those in the heartland off of outdated, slow dial-up connections is important not only to moving our economy forward but also to allowing Americans to choose to live and work in rural America.
Unfortunately, rural America is once again facing a threat from decision makers in Washington that could stand in the way of Internet access in rural communities. Last May, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced a proposal that could force high-speed Internet transmission to be subject to additional government regulations, thereby stifling investment and forcing consumers to foot higher bills for service.
As a result, progress on important initiatives like the National Broadband Plan has slowed, investors are discouraged, and the digital gap between urban and rural America is growing.
The expansion of broadband Internet access is an important tool in the development of rural America. And the future of the farmers and ranchers who provide our nation's food and fuel increasingly depends on it.
