By Ben Foster, president and CEO of Twin Valley Communications (Miltonvale, Kan.), and Stephen Milner, CEO of Planters Telephone Cooperative (Newington, Ga.)
A recent report from NTCA found that its members are consistently expanding the reach of fiber-to-the-home networks that enable increasingly higher speeds in rural communities.
NTCA and member companies like ours have long advocated for federal agencies to take a longer-term perspective to setting goals for network performance, recognizing that networks should be built to last decades rather than merely responding to demands here and now. That is why NTCA was pleased to see the FCC vote recently to increase the benchmark speed for fixed broadband service to 100/20 Mbps and establish a longer-term objective of 1 Gbps/500 Mbps.
Even in the wake of this vote, there’s a lot of debate about what level of broadband service consumers need and how objectives for government programs should be set. Some say that to connect everyone, we need to just give people a bare minimum level of service to start. Others argue for lower speeds because that’s all their networks can do, and they don’t want to get shut out of funding. But those arguing for lower speeds fundamentally ignore how networks are built – and they ignore important lessons from prior broadband funding programs that failed.
There’s a saying that those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it, and this is true when it comes to broadband funding programs. For years, many programs have aimed to do “just good enough,” which results in the continued rebuilding of networks again and again. It’s important to learn from these past mistakes.
Rather than aiming for quickly outdated targets and doing “just good enough,” it’s critical that the FCC take a longer view. Providers should not be building networks for right now; they should be building them for the demand that’s expected over the decades-long life of a network.
This is also important because we can all see how rapidly performance and demand are increasing. Urban users are getting access to higher and higher speeds. Rural users need to keep pace, and rural communities won’t grow and thrive unless they can offer comparable connectivity.
When it comes to broadband policies and funding programs, rural consumers need and deserve better than “just good enough.” We need policies and programs that aim to build networks for today and tomorrow.
Ben Foster is the president and CEO of Twin Valley Communications (Miltonvale, Kan.). Stephen Milner is the CEO of Planters Telephone Cooperative (Newington, Ga.).