One of the most frustrating things about being in a
world so completely dominated by the Internet is having inconsistent and
limited access to the ‘net which is undoubtedly the most powerful
communication, information, and commercial tool ever invented by Man.
Living where I do, we don’t have cable and the
over-the-air broadband made available to us is slow and its monthly usage is
capped. Because of that, we have to dramatically limit our web browsing -- we
cannot watch videos and we try to stay away from downloading documents and
software.
While that has an effect on our personal web
behaviors (I can’t watch my beloved college hockey team’s games online) and
professional activities (my wife saves much of the management of her private
practice for when she is at her office), it’s nothing compared to the frustration
that must be had by our neighbors.
Within one mile of our home are a grain farmer, a
fruit grower who maintains a retail and commercial cold storage facility, and
one of the largest dairy farms in the county. Those folks are saddled with the
same internet limitations that we have at home.
Operating a plant in a city and knowing how
critical high-speed internet has been to how we do things, I can’t fathom how
difficult it must be for them to handle the business side of their operations
in this day and age of e-commerce an e-control.
How do they market their products? How do they
handle transactions with their clients? How do they communicate and share files
with suppliers, distributors, banks, and accountants? How do they not get
frustrated in the inability to invest in web-based technologies like cameras
and other monitoring systems that would serve their farms well?
Some would say that it comes with the territory of
living and doing business in Rural America, that it’s a trade-off. But is it?
Rural America is not backwoods. We don’t live some Spartan,
bare-bones existence. At least where we are we have some of the finest in
infrastructure…our roads are in tip-top shape, our electrical grid is
exceptional, and we have county water serving our properties.
But, that infrastructure market basket is missing
something just as critical – the internet, be it in the form of cable, fiber
optics, or cellular technologies.
In this era and all those coming after us, having
the Internet is just as necessary as having good roads, bridges, and waterways.
Just as trade has, is and will be moved across those pieces of infrastructure,
trade now moves across -- and always will -- the Internet. It’s an absolutely critical
means by which businesses can compete globally.
Because the free market has been so slow to invest
in rural Internet access, it will likely take some sort of investment from
federal and state governments to provide that access to rural residents and
businesses, just as those governments did and do with the other pieces of
infrastructure.
What form could that take? It could be tax
incentives. It could be elimination -- or even addition -- of regulations. It
could be direct investment in and the ownership of the rural systems, something
akin to the public power systems that some municipalities have.
President Trump campaigned at length about the need
to invest in America’s infrastructure and it will obviously become a part of
his legacy. But, his team, at that time, did not consider rural Internet access
as a part of the investment package. That mindset has to change, especially
given his vague promises to provide better broadband to the Rural Americans who
voted him in.
This is not a problem unique to my neighborhood;
it’s bigger than us. Gasport is just one community of thousands facing such
struggles. In New York alone, more than 100,000 people don’t have access to
wired internet providers, while two-thirds of a million people in the Empire
State have access to just one provider. If you look at America as a whole, only
55 percent of rural residents can achieve a connection of 25 megabits per
second (the FCC’s minimum broadband threshold that was announced in 2015),
while 94 percent of urban residents can connect at that rate.
With a chasm that vast it will be difficult to
close that gap, but somehow we have to, and with a sense of urgency, too. Rural
America’s poverty rate of 18 percent is 3 percent higher than Metropolitan
America’s rate and it’s growing. By investing in the latest and greatest
communications networks, those areas can be given the chance to turn around
their fortunes by starting or growing businesses in a world where e-commerce is
king.
From the 13
February 2017 Greater Niagara Newspapers
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