A workman installs a Google Fiber conduit in Sandy on Tuesday, July 26, 2022. Scott G Winterton, Deseret Information
In 1936 Congress handed the Rural Electrification Act, enabling federal low-cost loans to carry electrical energy to rural America. It gave of us entry to facilities we take without any consideration: like indoor plumbing, refrigeration and radio. It remodeled lives.
Right now, almost 90 years later, there’s one other pressing want in rural America: dependable, high-speed web. Increasingly more, enterprise is carried out on-line: banking, working, well being care (telehealth), education, conferences, and so on. Rural America is being left behind.
Ten counties in Utah have at the least 92% protection with 100mbps. However 10 counties have greater than 30% of residents with out excessive pace entry. In a 2018 Pew Analysis survey, 24% of adults residing in rural communities cited excessive pace web entry as a serious downside.
Whereas efforts have been made at state and federal ranges, extra might be completed. Whether or not the true problem is pole entry or the shopper price per rural mile, Congress might rekindle a few of the spirit of the REA, and quicken the set up of excessive pace web by providing federal loans or grants that prioritize rural communities, streamlining the allow processes for rights of approach or pole entry, and inspiring conduit installations throughout street development tasks. We have to carry rural America into the twenty first century.
Gina Worthen
North Logan