WASHINGTON — On Tuesday, the Rural & Agriculture Council of America joined several other national groups in a letter of support urging swift, bipartisan action on the Broadband DATA Act.
In the letter, the groups write:
“In February, Congress passed the Broadband DATA Act –a bipartisan milestone that can help prevent rural Americans from falling further behind with respect to internet access. This legislation seeks to remedy a problem that has stifled previous efforts at extending internet coverage to rural areas: the government simply does not have reliable data on high-speed broadband coverage in rural America.
“Historically, the FCC has only had census block data available from which to make policy and resource allocation decisions. Unfortunately – as the relatively-low levels of reliable, high-speed connectivity in rural America demonstrate – this approach is imperfect and falls short of the rates of connectivity that new tools and technologies can enable.
“The Broadband DATA Act addresses this obstacle by directing the FCC to create more precise and accurate broadband coverage maps. New mapping technology can help identify each unique residence or physical structure in rural America, meaning the specific areas which are still unserved can be accurately highlighted. For rural communities to fully overcome the digital divide, policymakers and broadband providers must first be able to accurately and uniformly identify areas that currently do, and do not, lack connectivity.”
Other groups signing on in support included the American Agri-Women, American Dairy Coalition, Intertribal Agriculture Council, and the United States Cattlemen’s Association.
–Rural & Agriculture Council of America