Net neutrality is vital – but so is rural broadband

Most issues look different from rural America, but that's especially true of net neutrality.No one doubts that net neutrality policies to keep the internet open and free for all users is vital. No internet provider or tech company should be allowed to block websites, censor or discriminate against viewpoints, manipulate cyberspace to shut out competition or otherwise interfere with our online experience.But for many activists and tech advocates in high-connectivity urban areas, that's all that net neutrality means. In rural America, however, effective net neutrality means much more.Most fundamentally, net neutrality policies must also accelerate the deployment and build out of new high speed networks to rural areas. A neutral internet doesn't mean much if you don't have network access in the first place and almost 40 percent of rural Americans still lack high-speed broadband.This is a key issue often overlooked in the debate. Policies that slow down the national effort to connect rural areas actually set net neutrality back. That may not be obvious in connected meccas like Silicon Valley or Washington DC, but it's painfully true on the ground in places like McGregor, Minnesota or Duckwater, Nevada, where access is spotty and incomplete.And this is how the current debate in Congress over competing proposals on net neutrality so frequently misses the point.