High-Speed Internet in the Heartland — The Challenges and Opportunities of Rural Broadband

The Council on Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics (C-FARE) hosted a free webinar on October 16th, 2020 to consider the challenges and opportunities facing increased broadband access in rural America. This event was moderated by C-FARE’s past president Roger Coupal.

With Americans becoming more reliant than ever on broadband due to the pandemic and an expectation to be able to compete with the larger market that is now accessible via the internet, broadband inequities are becoming more and more obvious.  

Panelists Alexander Marre (Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond), John Pender (USDA ERS), Anne Read (The Pew Charitable Trusts), and Mike Malandro (Choptank Electric Cooperative) discuss their on-going research into rural broadband-related issues and potential ways we could adapt our current infrastructure to create increase broadband access.

Alexander Marre makes the case that, “every dollar spent on broadband infrastructure results in three to four dollars in economic growth.” This means that increased broadband access could also increase wages and decrease unemployment. With many businesses going completely online, having a steady internet connection can open doors to opportunities all over the country.

Alex reiterates that increasing access to broadband in rural America is important, but it is also incredibly expensive. This is due to rural areas typically having a low population density and being located a sizeable distance to existing broadband infrastructure.

John Pender discusses inaccuracies in the FCC’s definition and measurement of broadband “availability”, which assumes that if one household in a census block has a broadband subscription, broadband is available to all households in the block. John argues that this definition overstates true availability for households in low population density rural areas, since census blocks in such areas can cover large areas. The FCC also uses internet services providers’ maximum advertised speeds in its measurement of broadband availability, and such advertised speeds often do not reflect actual broadband speed performance. Although the FCC data on broadband availability has flaws – which the FCC acknowledges and is working to address – it still can be valuable for tracking changes in availability over time.

To get more in-depth on federal broadband programs, John provides examples like the USDA ReConnect Program that provides grants, loans, or loan/grant combinations to support new or upgraded broadband service in rural areas where 90% or more of the households lack access to fixed terrestrial broadband service at speeds of at least 10 mbps downstream and 1mbps upstream.

Anna Read, from The Pew Charitable Trusts, brought up the fact that over the last several years, multiple states have authorized rural electric cooperatives to provide broadband service. Elaborating on the fact that Electric cooperatives are well-positioned to provide broadband service because their service footprints are often in rural areas that are unserved by broadband, they are investing in fiber optic infrastructure to support their electric operations, because they have the infrastructure (e.g., poles) necessary for broadband deployment.

When asked about the affordability of the electric cooperative broadband service model panelist Mike Malandro responded with, “We are competitive, we are cheaper than satellite or a fixed wireless connection. We are not as cheap as a basic connection that can be found in urban areas, but we are very affordable and once folks figure out how to disconnect some of their services like traditional cable and switch to fiber optic internet service with some streaming, they will end up saving money.”

Anna Read then discussed examples of several states that have enacted legislation that allows for investor-owned utilities to provide middle-mile capacity in order to facilitate broadband expansion in rural and unserved areas.  Additionally, states have addressed the formation of cooperatives or regional districts for the purpose of broadband deployment. West Virginia allows the formation of broadband cooperatives. Maine allows local governments to form partnerships and form regional municipal utility districts for the provision of broadband.  And Vermont similarly allows multiple towns to enter into agreements to form a Communications Union District to build communications infrastructure, including broadband.

In other cooperative models Land O’Lakes, the Minnesota-based farmer-owned cooperative, is providing public Wi-Fi access at 140 locations in 19 states.

During the event, the question of increasing mobile connections like 4G LTE instead of broadband arose. Mike Malandro pointed out that, “All of these wireless providers are using fiber. You have to have a strong fiber backbone to even run 4G LTE.” This means that the fiber infrastructure would need to be built even if the goal was only to increase mobile connection stability.

Anna Read further supported the idea that a mobile connection is not a replacement to broadband access by stating “One of the reasons this is not a good alternative to broadband access is because speeds for 4G LTE users are location-dependent, meaning that speeds decline the farther they are from the antenna that broadcast 4G signals.  Additionally, wireless carriers generally place caps on monthly data usage, which can limit what users are able to do over the network. And plans that advertise unlimited data may slow a user’s data speeds once they use a certain amount of data.”

Looking for more information on How States Are Expanding Broadband Access and the Key Elements of State Broadband Programs?

Want to learn more about your state’s laws governing high-speed internet access? Check out Pew’s State Broadband Policy Explorer.

This program is supported in part by the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service and National Agricultural Statistics Service.

Those who register but cannot attend our webinar can always view a recording of it later at the council’s YouTube channel.