By Lew Weinberg
Argus Leader
12/04/2017

Broadband access is no longer a luxury. It is a 21st century necessity. Small towns and surrounding rural communities enjoy advantages when properly connected.

As an Internet service provider, I hear from people every day about not having access to the Internet. I hear, “my business can’t compete with urban businesses,” or, “my child can’t do her homework because we don’t have broadband.” They ask me if I can help and the truth is, I can’t. Not without government intervention.

Connect Americans Now is a coalition that has found new technology to use existing infrastructure to extend high-speed broadband to rural areas by using TV white spaces.

In order to get broadband to rural areas, there needs to be public sector support. The FCC needs to ensure the continued use of at least three channels below 700 MHz on an unlicensed basis in every market in the country. Federal and state infrastructure investments are also necessary to achieve connectivity for rural Americans.

People in rural America are being forgotten and we need to do everything we can to help them. I ask Sen. John Thune to remember the rural state that he represents and keep up the fight for small towns.