By Blake Renner
The Hutchinson News
01/05/2018

It’s no question that broadband has become vital to Americans. It’s critical to access health care, advance education, improve agriculture and grow small businesses. So if broadband plays such an important role in building a thriving economy, why does the Federal Communications Commission report that 23.4 million rural Americans still lack broadband access?

People in rural communities are increasingly unable to take advantage of the economic and educational opportunities cities enjoy. Closing the digital divide would entice people in urban areas to move to rural communities where they could have small-town living with big-city opportunities. I own a construction company in rural Sedgwick County and this population shift would greatly benefit many small businesses, including mine.

Connect Americans Now seeks to eliminate the gap within the next five years by using TV white spaces to extend broadband. This technology is more reliable than dial-up and less expensive than running cables. It uses existing infrastructure and can reach up to 10 miles without interrupting signal.

Real progress to close the broadband gap has been nearly nonexistent. Though private sector companies such as Microsoft have advanced broadband technology, the public sector must step up. The FCC and Chairman Ajit Pai, a fellow Kansan, need to continue to make rural internet access a priority. The FCC needs to reserve three channels under 700 MHz of unlicensed TV white space in all markets and improve data collection to supply investors with accurate information so they can help communities most in need. And more capital needs to be allocated at the state and federal levels to internet-lacking rural areas through infrastructure funds.

This should no longer be a partisan issue. People’s livelihoods are at stake. Sens. Moran and Roberts have a duty to serve the people who voted for them. Too many times rural communities have been overlooked. We need to make sure we’re doing everything we can to eliminate the digital gap between the urban and rural world.

Blake Renner

Wichita

Read original op-ed on The Huthinson News.