By: Dave Roetman
The Argus Leader
06/22/2018

As a South Dakota businessman and resident, I am invested in the enhancement of business across the state. Currently, half of South Dakotans live in rural areas and may lack access to high-speed Internet. Significantly slower Internet access in rural communities limits small, rural businesses’ ability to compete with large businesses in urban areas. This gap creates a rural-urban divide, where rural residents lose out on opportunities that urban residents have daily.

Connect Americans Now (CAN) wants to end the rural-urban digital divide within the next five years. CAN plans to utilize television white space (TVWS) technology in order to reach their goal. This technology utilizes the vacant spectrum between broadcast television stations to deliver broadband to more remote areas. TVWS can be used alongside fiber-based technologies to bring reliable and affordable high-speed Internet access to communities in need. To do so, CAN needs the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to set aside a sufficient spectrum of TVWS channels for use on an unlicensed basis in all markets.

I call on Senator Thune to urge the FCC and Chairman Pai to ensure there is a sufficient spectrum of TVWS for CAN to increase access to broadband for rural South Dakotans. If the issue of broadband access is not addressed, South Dakotans will continue to feel its negative effects.

Dave Roetman, Sioux Falls

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