Rural Broadband’s Only Hope: Thinking Outside the Box?

As states struggle to close the connectivity gap in rural areas, some experts believe a federal mandate, similar to the one that first brought those residents electricity, might be in order.The American landscape of broadband in rural areas is spotty at best. It is a picture covered with splotches of color. Some maps are covered with red indicating there is no service; and other maps are covered in blue where access can be found. In states like North and South Dakota, officials have done their best to give their populace fiber to the home.Then there are areas where the state government has worked hard to provide grants and a flexible network of private and local not-for-profit organizations to build out coverage slowly. An excellent example of this would be Minnesota where 117 providers have come together to build infrastructure in the name of economic development. But there are still areas that have nothing to tether them to the modern world at all. These areas are not just rural, but geographically challenging to traverse and connect.To solidify his case and get state law behind him, he offered amendments to House Bill 4023, relating to rural connectivity and the use the state and university system's network to connect rural Oregon municipalities, where 43 school districts still lack a fiber-optic connection.“On one-third or half the landmass of the state, people can't access the Internet," Pettit said. "The state is full of data centers, from Apple to Google, but there are 10 counties with 49 school districts without connectivity."