Rural Kansas Is Getting Online With Expanded Broadband Access
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There are pockets of the country where the internet is hard to come by, but access is vital for farmers, ranchers and rural residents. The pandemic only compounded this problem. A rancher driving 30 miles to check his email. Parents taking their children to a parking lot for virtual school. A college student driving to the top of a hill for a hot spot.
“The agricultural sector by its nature is rural and remote, and from an infrastructure perspective, that always creates a challenge,” says Daniel Friesen, the co-founder and chief innovation officer at IdeaTek. “It’s not that we didn’t know that in many parts of rural Kansas were very underserved with broadband, it’s that it just got exacerbated by the fact that we were completely dependent on home connections last year.”
Communities without reliable broadband frequently use their work, school, library or community center’s internet in order to manage their farms, check market prices, order feed and supplies, and continue with their lives. When the shutdown happened in spring of 2020, they were stranded. Companies like IdeaTek, which works to bridge the technology gap in rural and underserved areas, took the lead.
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The state’s largest recipient of CARES broadband funding, IdeaTek used it to lay 358 miles of fiber optic cables and install 70 wireless towers in just three months. The project had a special focus on Chase and Meade counties, which went from 100% unserved to almost completely served.
“Over the last 18 months, this situation of a digital divide that exists between rural and urban in America was more illuminated,” Friesen says.
Cut Off
The majority of the people that IdeaTek worked with did have internet, but it was not fast enough to meet the need. For Laura Haffner, an instructor of agronomy at Fort Hays State University, some students had to adjust to moving to a completely digital school experience.
“This is not just a rural issue but can occur near more urban communities as well,” she says. “Under normal circumstances, they may have been able to go to the local library or cafe for the internet, but with businesses being closed, that wasn’t an option.”
Land O’Lakes Inc., a farmerowned cooperative that does business in all 50 states and touches some 10,000 rural communities across the country, is convening nearly 170 companies and organizations within the American Connection Project to raise awareness and advocate for investment to close the digital divide across the country.
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“Broadband connectivity is no longer a luxury but essential for business, education, health care and economic competitiveness,” says Matthew Wohlman, senior director of state and industry affairs at Land O’Lakes Inc. “Connecting all Americans to reliable and affordable broadband internet is an issue as monumental as the rural electrification of the 1930s.”
During the pandemic, Land O’Lakes saw an immediate need and worked with the American Connection Project partners to come up with a temporary solution: open its offices’ and facilities’ parking lots to the public to use its Wi-Fi. The group provided more than 3,000 Wi-Fi locations across the country in 49 states for the public to use for work, school and health care. Each location would see dozens of people per day, and over the last 18 months, the need has not declined.
“In May 2020, we had college students that were sitting in the parking lot at one of our locations doing their final exams,” says Wohlman, who is also a fifthgeneration farmer. “We’ve heard about families pulling up in their car to do virtual health care sessions. And others are coming just to pay their bills. The use of these Wi-Fi locations has been tremendous, which underscores the need for Congress to provide needed investment to close the digital divide across the country.”
Broadening Broadband
Wohlman is hopeful about the Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act’s promise of a $65 billion investment in broadband access. It’s an initiative that Land O’Lakes and the American Connection Project partners have spent the last year and a half advocating for.
“We are pleased that Congress is taking bipartisan steps to pass a robust infrastructure bill that will provide needed investments in broadband infrastructure across the country,” Wohlman says. “The families, businesses and communities who are not connected today are being left behind. They are not able to connect to markets, leverage technology to enhance productivity, get good education for their kids or leverage virtual platforms for health care. The results are staggering. As we look to the future, it’s not a matter of whether we can afford it, but whether we can afford not to make this investment.”
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Other companies pushing for more internet access include Pioneer Communications, which provides service to the traditionally underserved Southwest Kansas area. Thanks to broadband advocates and the projects launched by Land O’Lakes and IdeaTek, farmers, students and other Kansans are able to continue their daily lives.
“It’s like a burden is lifted a lot of times when you get people connected back into the world,” Friesen says. “How could you not be passionate and live to do that?”