Pick nearly any state in the union and likely it has a large swath of rural area and population. Even California, which is rarely thought of as a “rural state,” is still physically more than half rural, with about four million residents living in those areas.
Many assume they know those rural dwellers. However, as it turns out, across the country, rural Americans are different from the stereotypes. According to Bloomberg CityLab, “Only nine percent of rural workers are in agriculture, while 12 percent work in manufacturing. A larger share work at schools, hospitals, or in someone’s home as a caregiver—not on the farm. Some 22 percent are employed in the education and health services industry.”
These rural Americans, with a large variety of careers, have as much interest as anyone in access to broadband, not just to catch the latest entertainment content, swap emails or peruse social media, but for jobs and industry.
From a broad variety of technologies, Broadband Search reports that 99.8% of Californians have wireless access with 99.4% of the state having access to speeds of 10 Mbps or more via wired or wireless. Further, cable broadband service is available to 94.3% of Californians, and fiber reaches 15.7%. Taken together, the state can boast of its broadband access and a technological diversity in broadband provisions, but some rural areas are still challenged with access.
Some see this challenge as an opportunity for government expansion. In Washington DC, some are weaving socialist dreams of spending billions for government to own networks. Others have proposed that the Department of Defense should take over the nation’s 5G future, parceling out leftovers for the country to use. In Sacramento, some propose to heavily regulate the broadband experience that people can have. Under any of these scenarios, citizens would get less, pay more and have less of a voice.
Recent Comments