Internet Technologies Lagging in Rural Areas

Not only is there a push to expand rural broadband internet access, but there are many who want to make sure that the speeds and quality of those connections are adequate to meet the needs of the farming community.

Jennifer Otwell, manager in the communications industry in Texas, said speed is king, and there’s just not enough of it in rural areas, even if those farmers are getting “broadband.”

“Some of what the FCC still deems as broadband is really not fast enough to do all these applications that we talk about.”

That’s why Otwell was calling for more investment from the House Ag Committee.

Many in rural areas also get satellite, or “wireless,” internet and Otwell said there are concerns there about the future.

“The thing to know about that is that we’ve talked about some of the smart farming initiatives, that’s generating huge amounts of data. Any wireless network cannot handle that amount of data except over a very short distance. You still have to have that wired network in place to the tower to be able to offload the data. It has to meet the rest of the world somewhere.”

Otwell spoke to the House Ag Committee as part of the Rural Broadband Association.