Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

The Federal government is spending billions of dollars on rural broadband. I haven’t seen any results in my rural area of interest. Something is about to happen, but we won’t know if it is practical or affordable until after it happens.

I am spending two weeks in Louisiana during the holidays. I was in rural Tangipahoa Parish at my mother’s house for about half that time. Each morning I drove “to town” to a coffee shop in Hammond for an hour or so of access. No broadband access out there in “the sticks.”

Whatever happened to the Federal money for rural broadband?

According to this story , 90% of the money went to the suburbs. People were creative in how they drew lines on a map and declared areas to be “rural.”

I did find several news stories about $36 million designated for rural broadband going in part to Tangipahoa Parish. This first story is one in which Louisiana’s Senators claim all credit for every ray of sunshine to hit the state since creation.

I could find no details on the technology that will be used in any of this.  All I learned was:

The technology will combine microwave and fiber connectivity

I am guessing that they will run a fiber optic trunk up a few major roadways and put RF towers every five miles. If you want service, you buy a special antenna, special modem, and pay a monthly few. No details on how much that will cost the consumers.

This story has a less than optimistic outlook. One of the parishes (counties in the rest of America) will receive broadband access in just a small area.

Sigh. This is a tough situation. It costs piles of money to run fiber into sparsely populated areas. A company would never recover the costs. That is the same situation that faced power companies in the days of the rural electrification programs. Taxpayer money made the difference. Today, we seem to have good intent, but the taxpayers’ money is going to the suburbs.

That is a shame.