FCC Chairman Ajit Pai talks rural broadband at Wichita conference

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai spoke to a group trying to get internet access to more people in Kansas. "Bandwidth needs for rural communities are higher than people think," FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said. "There has to be a business case," Chairman Pai said. "There has to be a return on investment. So that, in some cases, requires federal subsidies." "Some people, for example when they think of the internet, they might think, all the person needs to do is to download Netflix," Pai said. "But, if you're on a connected farm, you're creating a lot of data from some of the sensors that are monitoring a cornfield or a soybean field. They need to upload that very quickly. So we're talking a huge amount both downloaded and uploaded. So that means you need to have high capacity broadband networks."