North Carolina and Virginia take steps to address rural broadband

I have written fairly extensively in the past about the barriers imposed by lack of access to broadband infrastructure in rural spaces. Broadband is almost essential for economic growth and for helping to bridge the resource gap. Access to broadband opens doors, it allows students in isolated communities to enroll in courses that may not be offered at their local school, a farmer to have a new market to sell his crops, and in a world where broadband is a necessity, rural communities to successfully compete with their urban and suburban counterparts. Unfortunately for many people, mostly in rural areas, access to broadband is still an impossible dream. I have written in the past about New York's attempts to address this article. In this piece, I am going to talk about the work of North Carolina and Virginia, who have both recently taken steps to address this problem.

In Virginia, it is estimated that 600,000 people, roughly the population of Vermont, lack access to broadband. According to the Virginia Charter of Commerce, this represents roughly 47% of rural Virginia. This means that a sizable number of rural Virginians live in communities that do not have access to broadband infrastructure, a significant barrier to economic growth. In fact, according to Evan Feinman, Virginia's Chief Broadband Officer, many companies will disregard an entire community if they do not have access to broadband.

This issue also affects North Carolina. While North Carolina does not have an official number for how many in the state lack access to broadband, they do believe that the current figure of 93.7% of households having access is inaccurate and inflated. Both states have a shared problem however, the telecom providers are not playing ball on telling them exactly where the gaps are, which hinders their ability to address the issue.

Despite the existing barriers however, both states are persisting in their battle to expand access. North Carolina governor Roy Cooper recently signed legislation overturning the ban on electric coops using federal funding to expand broadband access. The legislation also clarified that it is legal for coops to use fiber that had been deployed to provide electricity for the secondary purpose of providing broadband service. In Virginia. Governor Ralph Northam signed legislation that created a pilot program that would allow electric utilities to utilize their infrastructure for middle mile deployment of broadband infrastructure. Northam and Cooper have also signed legislation that would appropriate funding to providers to expand their broadband infrastructure into rural spaces. By signing legislation that involves providers in the expansion of broadband, both governors may have created a mechanism for getting information on where the gaps exist and provided a means to address them. I would argue however that both states need to commission independent studies into broadband availability in order to reduce the reliance on providers to give information about gaps.

Addressing the broadband issue is going to important for rural Virginia and North Carolina. Northern Virginia and the Research Triangle are both tech hubs and a lack of broadband availability prevents that economic prosperity from spilling over into the rural corners of these states. I am encouraged by the progress that both states have made in recent months and hope to see it continue.