Bringing everyone online has the potential to unlock advancements like we’ve never seen before — I am honored to be a part of reigning in this new era of human development.
Despite the hard physical labor of it and the occasional icky task, growing up on my dad’s 200-acre farm was, at times, idyllic and beautiful — the young calves grazing in the pasture, the smell of hay on my clothes, warm fresh milk spilling over the top of the buckets as I carried them across the barn.
I was also very isolated. We lived 10 miles from school, four miles from church, and nearly three miles from my best friend. Most of my schoolmates were city girls, so once summer hit, I would only see them at church on Sundays.
With all the ways digital connectivity has made it easier to stay in touch with people across distances, such a state of disconnection today might sound impossible. Yet recent FCC maps estimate over 8.3 million homes and businesses in the U.S. still lack access to high-speed broadband, many in hard-to-reach rural areas where new buildouts are expensive and population densities too low to justify such investment.
Now, we have hope on the horizon — $65 billion in federal funding from the 2021 Infrastructure Bill for broadband buildouts and affordability. States have been actively involved in making federal broadband maps more accurate and are already planning how to spend their share in the areas that most need connectivity.
From milking cows to becoming the CEO of a broadband solutions company helping make this happen, the dream of universal broadband is now within our reach. Here’s what this means to me:
New economic opportunities
My dad always knew he needed to find new ways to work more efficiently and produce more on his farm to stay competitive, often with investments in new technology. Back then, that meant trading in his tractor for the newest model. Now, the most competitive tractors are fully autonomous, which means competitive farms today need broadband.
With connected technology to save on time, energy, and learning, new farmers have an additional tool to enter the industry, and existing farmers can start new projects that allow them to grow. Online marketing can get a farm’s products in front of more potential consumers and facilitate more effective partnerships. AI can use machine learning, drones, and in-ground sensors to monitor crop growth and livestock health and send tips to the farmer for improvement. Farmers can send soil samples for testing from home and enable precision agriculture to optimize fertilizer, herbicide, fossil fuel, and water use, reducing overall costs and the negative environmental impact.
More successful farms will keep more local shops in business. Newly outfitted with high-speed broadband, rural communities will draw remote workers looking for lower housing costs and a country lifestyle, bringing in new income to support the growth of more small businesses and new jobs. Once these geographically isolated regions are fully connected to the modern digital economy, rural communities will thrive.
Better health and educational equity
Growing up on a farm, I learned how hard it was being cut off from cities with modernizing technologies; then, the pandemic made those challenges abundantly clear. An estimated 10 to 16 million students lacked internet before schools closed their doors, then COVID-19 hit, creating serious obstacles to home-bound learning. People cut off from broadband could not apply for unemployment benefits, participate in distance learning, or even find vaccination sites and schedule vaccinations, resulting in higher death rates in these medically and socially isolated areas.
Through telemedicine, rural patients can connect with top healthcare providers nationwide. Remote monitoring and virtual consultations can reduce the need for long and costly trips to the nearest available doctor. With the real-time transmission of medical records and tools for digital collaboration, healthcare professionals can deliver prompt and accurate diagnoses and treatment methods to more people and improve health outcomes.
With universal broadband, schools across rural America will have the same access to digital courses, testing options, higher education opportunities, and teacher advancement tools as schools in bigger cities. Minimum speeds are a good start to support basic video conferencing. Still, as we take greater advantage of fiber's symmetrical up and down speeds and its yet-undiscovered maximum capacity for speed, we will likely develop new technology with more educational benefits and dynamic learning.
Beyond just watching clear and fluid videos, students will be able to interact and engage with them. Virtual trips will allow students to explore different cultures and geographies with more of a firsthand look than ever before. As more students across more rural areas experience the benefits of immersive digital education, they may become future entrepreneurs with more perspectives contributing to the innovation of more effective products and services to benefit more of society.
Stronger social connectivity
Applications like Zoom and Facetime make it easier than ever to reach out to loved ones worldwide, but not for areas without broadband. As we saw during the pandemic, disconnection can drive feelings of loneliness, increasing the risk of heart attack, stroke, and premature death. On the other hand, strong social relationships can have a better impact on health and longevity than not smoking.
With broadband across America, more people can move to remote locations to start a new life and trust they will be able to stay close to loved ones and family. Those who moved away from their families to be closer to work and larger cities can consider moving back into their rural hometowns. With broadband, I can keep an eye on my aging mom with a real-time camera security system and program her Alexa to call me in case of an emergency. Families can connect with distant relatives. Friends can reunite. Community organizations can engage more of their residents in collective action.
Universal broadband enhances rural Americans' quality of life and builds a greater sense of inclusivity and social cohesion across the nation. Bringing everyone online to benefit from economic growth, education, healthcare, and social development can unlock advancements like we’ve never seen before. It is an honor to be a part of reigning in this new era of human development.
