[I’m a rural telco cooperative customer, and I know so are many of you. That’s why I’m publishing this guest post on broadband from Shirley Bloomfield, CEO of the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association. –Becky]
By Shirley Bloomfield
 |
| Broadband discussion table at the Midwest Rural Assembly |
It’s been called today’s “essential service,” with the transformative power of electricity and the telephone. High speed broadband Internet access (“broadband”) has already altered the way Americans live, work and play-and new applications for our daily lives emerge constantly. Broadband’s benefit to businesses, particularly small businesses, is clear, and while broadband can improve the lives of all consumers, access is especially important for those living and working in rural America.
Broadband access is critical for rural communities because it levels the playing field with urban areas. It helps rural-based businesses compete locally, nationally and globally, which aids economic development in small towns. Consider the farmer who monitors weather patterns online, or the rancher that can buy and sell livestock in markets far beyond his traditional geographic boundaries. Small business owners with limited human and financial resources can easily expand their customer reach through online advertising and transactions. As connected businesses expand their market presence, they can grow and create more jobs.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. As the speed of online services increases, applications will continue to improve and be used more extensively by businesses and consumers. Innovation encourages more innovation, and small businesses are among those best equipped to capitalize on the potential of online commerce.
Put simply, faster Internet speeds save businesses time and money. Broadband connections enable the processing of high volumes of online transactions-at rates that are considerably more efficient and cost effective than with slower speeds such as provided by dial-up access. Broadband makes online training and telecommuting possible, which can attract potential employees and keep shareholders informed. In some cases, communities with broadband access can develop a pool of online workers which could attract information technology-based businesses like software development firms. All of these things contribute to the competitive edge of rural and small town communities, giving them a competitive edge in attracting and retaining business, which is absolutely essential to their continued viability.
Community-based telecommunications companies provide this critical broadband connection to rural consumers, businesses, governments, and anchor institutions like hospitals, schools and libraries. Small businesses themselves-originally established to bring communications service to areas deemed unprofitable by the larger telecom providers, local telcos have a vested interest in the economic development of their communities. They partner with other local businesses and civic entities to enhance the lives of local residents, or undertake such projects themselves.
Take Spring Grove Communications in Minnesota, for example. The telco recently built a stadium-style, 200-seat 3-D capable cinema that includes a stage for theatre presentations, public meetings, and other forums. The facility also has 900 square feet of office space. In addition to the movie offerings, the cinema has been the site of training seminars, a regional economic development authority meeting and online gaming contests. Located on the town’s main street, the cinema has become a hub for activity and attracted interest to the area. In addition, the telco in 2004 purchased a blighted property next to its existing office and built a new headquarters building. But the facility houses much more than the telco offices, it is also home to the Spring Grove Public Library, a 24-hour fitness center (owned and operated by the telco) two community meeting rooms and three offices for local businesses.
Local telcos are also actively engaged in their communities’ public safety, telemedicine, and education initiatives. Grand River Mutual Telephone in Missouri teamed up with a local police department to combat crime by installing a system that allows law enforcement officers to monitor strategically-placed security cameras virtually anywhere in the telco’s service area-all made possible via a broadband connection, which Grand River provides free to member communities with a full-time city office. The company has been approached by several local business owners and farmers interested in placing cameras outside their own establishments to monitor the premises.
In the health care arena, Madison Telephone in Illinois recently initiated a community partnership with Community Memorial Hospital, which was experiencing extreme latency issues in data transmission due to an Internet connection it shared with other public facilities. Madison worked with the hospital to install a fiber optic network that provides an unlimited potential for bandwidth-rich applications like those needed to expedite the analysis and transfer of medial diagnostic information to larger hospitals and clinics in the region. Timely readings and diagnoses increase the effectiveness of the hospital’s treatment and ultimately improve the quality of life of patients.
The telco also collaborated with a local school district to provide a fiber connection which delivered enhanced data services enabling the school to pursue online education opportunities for students residing throughout its challenging rural environment. The design was even promoted by the Illinois Telephone Association as an example of how its members can create effective public-private partnerships to address community needs. SkyLine Membership Corporation in North Carolina also demonstrated a commitment to education in its community with the awarding of $55,000 in grants funding SMART Board Interactive white board systems which help teachers bring more interactivity and collaboration into the classroom. The telco has been praised by its community’s students, teachers and school administrators for helping to transform its schools into 21st century learning environments.
Despite the many challenges of serving these areas-notably the extreme high-cost of deploying network infrastructure over sparsely populated and often rugged terrain-local telcos are committed to delivering the reliable, high-quality broadband at affordable rates. To do this, small telcos rely on a proven system of cost-recovery mechanisms to ensure they are able to recoup the large financial investment necessary to build and maintain the networks that connect rural communities to each other and to the world.
A federal plan to expand broadband access to all Americans, known as the national broadband plan, threatens that cost recovery system and undermines small telcos’ own efforts to make broadband available throughout their service territories-and to continue the initiatives that create jobs and improve the economic standing of rural communities. The national broadband plan puts rural businesses at the risk of an extreme competitive disadvantage. As written, the plan dismantles the cost recovery mechanisms that rural telcos rely on to build and maintain their broadband-capable networks. It also proposes to fund broadband speeds in rural areas that are 25 times slower than those in urban areas. Small businesses that rely on affordable high-speed broadband should support their local communications provider’s efforts to alter the course of the national broadband plan. Doing so will help ensure businesses receive the broadband services they need to keep rural America a vital engine for innovation and prosperity.
Shirley Bloomfield is Chief Executive Officer of the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association, which represents more than 560 locally owned and controlled telecommunications cooperatives and commercial companies throughout rural and small-town America. Reach her at sbloomfield@ntca.org.
New to SmallBizSurvival.com? Take the Guided Tour. Like what you see? Get our updates.
- About the Author
- Latest by this Author
Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.
In a speech given in 1837, Abraham Lincoln said, “It is an old maxim and a very sound one, that he that dances should always pay the fiddler.”
Many rural citizens supported the expansion of the national government. There were cries for “Parity” and others were moved by desire for “rural development.”
But the cold hard fact is that larger national government tends to favor the perceptions and whims of the centers of dense population.
Our founding fathers made many mistakes and I am not one who views the American Constitution as it was originally written nor as it is currently amended as even close to ideal. (Actually I believe that the pursuit of an “ideal world” is described in the book commonly called Ecclesiastes as a foolish and worthless effort.)
But there was one concept that they did try to promote that has been weakened rather than stengthened. Whenever possible the local populace should set its own public policy and the domestic agenda of the national government should be limited to settling disputes which arise when there is interstate commerce activity.
One paragraph devoted to a side issue:
One thing they failed to do is provide a way for the individual who is deprived of the right of opportunity by local laws which prevent equal liberty to appeal for defense against injustice. (This is not an endorsement of the “equality of outcome” philosophy which is inherently unjust.)
Government enforces its policies through force. Force involves a deprivation of liberty. The reason that law enforcement officers carry weapons is because they are authorized to deprive a suspect or a convict of his liberties.
Every time that the national government tries to intervene on behalf of rural communities, it uses force to accomplish its purposes. An good example is the Tennessee Valley Authority. The TVA was created in order to bring technological development to a rural part of the nation. But if you visit the “Land Between The Lakes” and examine what you see from a historical perspective, you soon discover that there are cemeteries that still mark the places where people were forceably ejected from their communities. Additionally there are some areas which are now under Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley which used to be communities. Since the development of the TVA, those who live within its jurisdiction have found it to be what is sometimes called “a mixed blessing.”
The folk songs of the 1930s sometimes collectively referred to as “The Songs of Norris Dam” demonstrate the anger that was generated by this project.
In 1962, Ronald Reagan was dismissed from his contract with General Electric after his public remarks against the TVA. In 1964, He again publicly denounced the TVA at the Republican National Convention.
Policies created by national governments composed of those who live at a great distance from the regions impacted are about as effective as “pinning the tail on the donkey.” (This is not intended as a reference to a political party.) It was the policies of the British Parliament which caused people who twenty years previously were proud citizens of the British Empire to start the American Revolution.
You can have it one way on one policy and another way on a different policy. The National Government can not be limited and big at the same time. If you want National Programs then you must pay the fiddler. If you want local telcos, then you must reduce the power and clout of the national government.
The system created in the 1700s is known as federalism. What we are seeing now is what Orwell would call “new speak.” Calling the national government “the federal government” is only accurate when it is limited and the ninth and tenth amendments are enforced. (Currently, they have been rendered moot by the national courts.)
James, you are clearly passionate on this subject. I appreciate you taking time to comment.