"Rural Broadband": An Inefficient Solution for a Misdiagnosed Problem

The emphasis on “rural broadband” misses potentially the most important long-term issue. For valuable reasons, policymakers are focusing on the immediate issue of lack of internet access. However, delivering ultra-fast connectivity at an affordable price in a socially equitable manner in all of our American communities is just the table stakes. The larger necessity we’re entirely failing to look at is that the vast preponderance of communities is also in dire need of modernized community water systems, responsible energy and smart grid solutions, transportation and mobility solutions, and other “secure smart cities” applications. The foundation to modernizing and interconnecting all this critical community infrastructure is extensive community fiber. It’s also worth noting that even if the problem was simply one of internet access, “broadband” is certainly not the solution. The Federal Communications Commission's recent Rural Digital Opportunity Fund program, and the preliminary rural broadband funding plans from the new administration, operate on the basis of the FCC definition of adequate internet connectivity: 25 megabits of download speed over 3 megabits of upload speed (25/3mbps). This threshold for determining if a community has adequate information access is so woefully outdated as to be meaningless in the current world of remote work, remote education, and distributed healthcare. In our rush to do “something” tangible and immediate, we have misdiagnosed the problem and have therefore mischaracterized the solution. As a result, we risk wasting tens of billions of dollars of economic resources at a time when we simply don’t have that luxury. As a nation we already face a cumulative, deferred infrastructure need of $5-8 trillion. Far worse though, we risk wasting a decade of precious time building the wrong infrastructure to meet outdated standards, exclusively focused on “rural” America. There is a better way. As a nation, if we are willing to engage with the complexity of this issue, we can establish a new paradigm: we build open access, multi-purpose fiber networks that can achieve both the table stakes of ultra-fast connectivity, and provide the foundation upon which our communities can develop and modernize the other critical community infrastructure they require for a vibrant and healthy future.‍