The North Carolina Rural Center hosted the first of a series of virtual panels on Thursday, May 7 with the first topic covering broadband. Access to high-speed internet has been an existing need for many rural areas in North Carolina, including much of Swain County. The recent coronavirus public health crisis that has sent students to online learning and many switching to working from home has put a renewed focus on the greatness of the need for better broadband in rural areas.
Discussion panelist Jody Huestess, VP of marketing and customer care at communications cooperative ATMC in Brunswick County, spoke on his personal experience with his 4th grader on several weekly online classroom meetings and his business’ employees working primarily from home.
“Without having internet available, we might still have to have everyone come here, and if one person is infected, we’d have to send everyone home and that would put us out of business,” he said.
Jeff Sural, Director of NC Broadband Infrastructure Office agreed the need is even greater now for high-speed connections for everyone. “Certainly, this situation has really highlighted the inequities throughout the state,” he said. “If you have broadband, you’re able to continue to do a lot of things at home, but we’re hearing in our office from a lot of folks across the state who are struggling. It’s not just the internet connection issue, but it’s a lack of quality.”
For Swain County, improvements have been made over the past couple of years. Specifically, a broadband committee has been hard at work making connections and helping apply for locally awarded grants. Plus, wireless internet company Skywave has been increasing service to several areas of the county that otherwise had limited or no access through DSL or fiber service. Most recently, both Skywave and local company Zito Media partnered with Swain County Schools to increase access for students both setting up more Wi-Fi spots and making service more affordable in more areas of the county.
Swain County is already ahead in meeting some of the efforts that lead to success when it comes to expanding broadband.
Huestess said some of the key questions to ask are: does the FCC think you have internet in some areas that actually lack service based on their mapping data, who are the partners, what grant resources and is the internet going to be sustainable?
“You’ve got to have a community champion who is willing to step up and say we need this in this location,” he said.
It’s not just access that can prove challenging, however, digital inclusion also includes buy in from consumers and for some it’s not affordable.
“The primary barrier is cost,” Sural said. “Affordability is a big issue we have to address. The other is digital literacy skills that come into play.”
Knowing how to use technology and having the devices can prove challenging as well, added Robert Hosford, the NC State Director for USDA Rural Development. More work is needed to eliminate structural barriers, he said.
Sarah Thompson, Executive Director of Southwestern Commission and moderator of the panel discussion, recapped on the digital literacy discussion, saying, “We need more people in rural areas using the internet to make it viable for businesses and we need people to understand that it’s to educate their children, visit the doctor and run e-commerce.”
The good news is the state legislature has been investing in expanded broadband to rural communities, and with the public health crisis highlighting the need, more funding has recently been designated toward the effort.
Senator Harry Brown, R-6 of Jones and Onslow counties, and Rep. Zack Hawkins, D- 31 from Durham, both spoke to these bipartisan efforts during the virtually held panel discussion.
The state legislature has helped fund rural broadband expansion through the GREAT program.
“We knew it was a huge success because we had requests for more money. In the next GREAT program, we put $15 million in. And the same thing happened again, we had requests for an additional $9 million; that’s why we included that in the COVID-19 package.”
The package also includes $11 million for connectivity and $20 million to add free WiFi hotspots to be delivered to students by school buses in their communities.
“I agree that there are two North Carolinas,” said Hawkins on the divide in access to broadband. “The legislature is incredibly dedicated to ensuring we solve this problem.”
He said he’d like to see funding in the GREAT program expanded.
The virtual discussion wrapped up with questions and answers from NC Rural Center members.
There are four more upcoming Rural Talk virtual series planned through the NC Rural Center.