Closing The Rural Broadband Gap

Since 1985, the League of Rural Voters has worked to help rural America develop a strong, sustainable, and resilient economy.  However, that won’t happen without closing the significant gaps in rural broadband coverage. Niel Ritchie, executive director of the League of Rural Voters, said the success of the Broadband Equity and Access Deployment Program, or BEAD program, is critical to getting rural Americans broadband access.

“Congress passed this Bipartisan Infrastructure Law back in 2021, and within that, there was $42 billion allocated to help close the digital divide, so the program that came from that is called the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program, or BEAD. Why it's important is because you can't do business in this world without broadband," Ritchie stressed.  "One in five rural Americans still live without reliable access or any access to broadband, but it’s the key to working in this economy, it's the key to learning, and with precision agriculture, it's helping guide the machines that feed us.”

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration has reviewed and approved every state’s initial application to the BEAD Program. So, where do we go from here?

“There's a period of one year where the states will be developing their own strategies for identifying those providers that will be able to request money to fix the gaps," Ritchie  said.  "It's going to be critical for us to find those providers that can actually do the job. Historically, we've had challenges trying to make sure that these investments deliver the results that we want, and we're taking enough time here and enough investment resources that a year should be a good enough amount of time to make a good plan. How many more tries are we going to get? How many more bites of the apple? This is probably our best chance to close this gap.”

He added there are steps state leaders need to take to maximize the BEAD funds.

“The key to the success of this program is making sure that the partners from the private sector that are doing the work, that are building the networks, we need to make sure that they have expertise building and maintaining and upgrading the networks over time is paramount. The key is getting those providers who understand the unique challenges of working in rural and remote areas. It's terrain. It's the weather. Increasingly, engineering solutions have to be made to solve problems, and private providers have the workforce, they have the history, and they know what they're doing. That's going to be the key to success.”

Ritchie added it’s going to take investments as well to make this project work.

“We have to continue having investments, as I said, in maintenance and innovations within the networks. The networks have to withstand not just natural and economic disasters, which we've had, but also security challenges and cyber security and these other things, and they have to get faster, because the sooner we can get something faster, the sooner we'll want more," Ritchie added.  "Providers have to be the key to this, and ones that have demonstrated commitment to long-term investments in innovation are going to be our best bets.”

For more information visit the League of Rural Voters Website.

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