Broadband: The Game Changer for Rural America

Thanks for this guest post from Congressman Boucher on the issue he's been working on since he left Congress!

Guest Post from Former Congressman Rick Boucher

When I arrived in Congress in 1983, town meetings in my district’s most rural counties centered on access to television—or lack thereof. It was clear then that one of the most pressing issues for the communities I represented was keeping families and businesses up to speed with modern communications capabilities. After witnessing the transformation that local focus and commitment produces in communities, I am certain of what access to high-speed Internet can mean for rural populations.

Today, millions of Americans are taking advantage of the benefits of broadband, from real-time news to on-demand education and information to better health care options. The Internet advances daily life and drastically enhances the ways we’re able to interact with our world. But too many Americans have yet to experience the benefits of this technology, to take advantage of the opportunities it provides. This promise of expansive rural opportunity leads me to support AT&T’s proposed merger with T-Mobile. The companies combining their strengths will bring 4G LTE wireless broadband access, with data speeds rivaling today’s fastest wired connections, to an additional 55 million Americans or more than 97 percent of the U.S. population. Earlier this year, President Obama set a goal for reaching 98 percent of the population with broadband access within five years. The merger of AT&T and T-Mobile would very nearly achieve the President’s goal – with private capital investment, not taxpayer funds.

The Internet is a bridge that ties rural America to our nation's and our world’s economic mainstream; it enables virtually any business to be conducted from any location. A physical proximity to customers and suppliers is no longer necessary, as the virtual proximity enabled by a broadband connection meets the same communications need: operations can be conducted just as efficiently from remote regions as they can in or near cities. Then, businesses and their employees can capitalize on the lower costs and the high quality of life they’ve come to cherish in rural communities. Broadband access benefits rural communities in many ways, from driving economic development, to improving health care and educational opportunities. Check out this infographic to see more.

Thanks to 28 years representing a rural Congressional district, I view the opportunities information technologies can bring to our nation through a rural lens. Technologies that connect our communities with the rest of their state, country and the world are reason for optimism even in the current economy. It’s hard not to be excited about delivering new options to millions of Americans, as the nation moves toward every citizen becoming part of the Broadband Revolution.

Comments

[Andrew]

Thank you for all you've done, Congressman Boucher. It really hurts to see someone that cares so much about advancing the well-being of their community voted out. I know you probably wouldn't consider running again, but if Roanoke gets into the 9th, you never know!

[BM]

Boucher Betrayed Coal! Enjoy the vacation!

[Not NLS]

He didn't "leave", he was thrown out by the good people of Southwestern Virginia.

[Coal Companies Screwed Boucher]

Rep. Boucher did exactly what the coal companies wanted him to do, but the ungrateful coal companies didn't have his back when it mattered. The lesson here: don't ever trust the coal companies on anything!

[Bubby Hussein, Hillbilly Sheikh]

If you are a Virginian west of Blacksburg and viewing this post, you should thank Rick Boucher and Mark Warner because you would otherwise be waiting for the 'free market' to find any profitable reason to hook your hillbilly ass up to the internet.

[a hillbilly ass]

Not withstanding the "hillbilly Ass" comment, the rest of your comment is 100% spot on. The same applies to electricity and FDR. The bottom line is that without government and people like Mark Warner and Rick Boucher, rural Appalachia infrastructure projects are not a profitable venture. It would behoove us to remember that next time we vote...

[Jack]

Of course, you could have moved your hillbilly ass to someplace with electricity, internet, and running water.

[a hillbilly ass]

And if we all did that, who would have dug up the coal you use everyday to run your electricity, internet, and running water... or grow the food at your grocery store, or supply the thousands of commodities you and the rest of the country are dependent on. Even when we finally transition from fossil fuels you will still need our hillbilly asses for materials and open land for solar and wind production.

[Bubby Hussein, Hillbilly Sheikh]

Since the day of King James the hill people have been independent, self-reliant, contemptuous of trappings and titles of nobility, scrupulously pious before their God alone...which generally got them run out of town. You will not find a people with fewer expectations. However, when you say you will do something, and do not, there will be no mincing. Rick Boucher delivered. Morgan Griffith is an open question, he keeps poor company.

[Anonymous Is A Woman]

Wonderful post, Rep. Boucher. Expanding access to Broadband in rural areas, such as Virginia's Southwest, will open up a host of economic, educational, and entertainment benefits to our fellow Virginians.

The Internet is an economic engine that powers job creation - and well paying jobs at that - and empowers entrepreneurs to start up small businesses and reach a customer base far beyond Virginia's borders. But the money these entrepreneurs make doing so will stay in Virginia, going to buy products and services at local businesses.

With Broadband access, the Internet can connect students to classes on-line, provide research and other educational tools, and open up new worlds for rural Virginia's youth.

The best part is that many of the jobs and opportunities created by the Internet, with Broadband, can have international reach but be done right here in rural Virginia so young people no longer have to leave homes and families to seek economic opportunity. You can start an on-line business from a family farm and keep your roots where your heart is.

I absolutely applaud AT&T and T-Mobile for their merger if it brings all these benefits to Virginia's rural areas.

[Not Bubby]

Self-reliant, eh? That explains why Bubby, their semi-literate champion, is whining about government providing internet access. Because they're so self-reliant.

Thanks for the laugh, fool.

[Jamie]

This promise of a seven figure salary from my new employer, Sidley Austin, leads me to support AT&T’s proposed merger with T-Mobile. Sidley is longtime outside counsel to AT&T.

- Fixed that for you.

[Old Harry]

So he is a lobbyist now. How much did he bill his client to write this ? Is Solyndra or its brother next ?

[Ghost of RWR]

“The merger of AT&T and T-Mobile would very nearly achieve the President’s goal – with private capital investment, not taxpayer funds.
No taxpayer funds…music to me ears. But this is the key. If the government (current and the new one coming) can resist their inclination to mandate actions of the market place, this will happen and yes, rural areas will be in a place to enjoy the employment opportunities that come with broadband. It will also spur more distributive working opportunities for employers and businesses.

This is all good. But again, the government needs to be an encourager, not a mandate machine or this too will fail badly.

[Andrew]

"Boucher Betrayed Coal! Enjoy the vacation!"

If you'd actually follow what was going on with Boucher and the emissions bills, you'd know that's bunk. You're just buying in to Morgan's propaganda.

The contempt for people in SW Va. is still palpable. My wife and I relocated from that part of the state because of lack of jobs in our fields in comparison to NoVa (we wanted to stay, badly, and we will probably return, but advancement in the tech industry will help). I'll never be a good "progressive" in NoVa terms. My wife will kill me for using this phrase that she hates, but "it is what it is".

[Jack]

"With Broadband access, the Internet can connect students to classes on-line, provide research and other educational tools, and open up new worlds for rural Virginia's youth."

Yeah, new worlds such a Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) and Club Penguin. They'll be wasting their time on Facebook and blogs just like the rest of us.

[Andrew]

I'd guess you were joking, Jack, but you went through the trouble of informing us of what the acronym for LOTR Online was, so maybe you are being serious and you really don't understand the benefit?

[Let's Be Free]

Here's what you get from Government intervention in the world of Broadband -- 136 households served for $64 million.

http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/county/article_2112e6f0-67b5-11e0-82f2-001cc4c002e0.html

Please stay out of our wallets, drop the crony-capitalism gig, stop stifling competition and take your dumb investments and absurd economic policies elsewhere.

[Let's Be Free]

Hidden subsidies creating by forming monopolies and oligopolies with pricing power reaches into citizen pockets, and rips off ordinary consumers, just as sure as any direct tax.

[change]

How did we ever become the super power/country we used to be when poor folk like my family did not have internet, cell phone, TV or indoor plumbing and we had “party line” phones, one car (maybe) per household.

Oh yeah…I remember… we worked together to make our circumstance better instead of counting on “big brother”; so that 50 years later we could have the government take away “our” hard earned “profit” to spend 200k per job to create/save fictional jobs.

Ahhhh…The American (uberliberal) dream… “share the wealth” of those who worked a lifetime to achieve so that someone else can sit home and watch porn on the internet… what a great investment…