by Terry Rodriguez
Governor Gavin Newsom and the California State Legislature are currently leading the effort in fixing the outdated and non-organized broadband infrastructure in our state referred to as the "Digital Divide."
The Digital Divide is the difference in affordable broadband services, and the technology supporting those services in the rural areas of California as compared to what exist in the urban communities. Overhauling California's broadband infrastructure with the goal of offering quality, high speed internet services, plus the investment to upgrade broadband infrastructures to support those services equally across the urban and rural sectors, would exact an economic and social boom to our state.
Availability of technological communication services is at the mercy of business Darwinism and the law of large numbers. Businesses survive where they can reap the biggest profits within lower cost of capital investment. As a result, the digital divide is a business profits game. Tech businesses provides the best infrastructure services to urban communities comprised of large population households and businesses within a geographical area where a return on investment is highly profitable. Whereas the same businesses do not find investments in smaller populated rural communities as profitable, not offering the infrastructure providing the same quality high speed broadband services as urban communities. Across the wide group of economic, social, and educational services obtained from global and domestic internet communities, urban communities reap all its benefits. While rural communities’ access to these same online communities is limited due to outdated broadband infrastructure and its questionable access capability.
California rural and urban communities have common needs in a global and domestic world of internet connected services. The digital divide is the quality of access to these connected services between both these communities. Ron Mackovich, in his article "California Surpasses 90% Internet Connectivity, But Low-income Households Still Lack Access," presented what he considered are the six pillars of online connected services importantly specific to rural geographics:
· Economic Development
· Public Health
· Teleworking
· Education
· Public Safety
· Quality of Life for Rural Communities
Though these are the opinions of the author, the list is representative of rural community needs, and the need to update its broadband infrastructure to meet access to those needs.
The nation has transitioned from a "brick and mortar" economy to a hybrid business model combination of business online/storefront presence, or online only. A rural business with a responsive fast internet service benefits from expanding the sale of their products and services beyond the borders of their town extending their market nationally, and even globally. Etsy and eBay are examples of online business platforms providing a virtual store to advertise, sell, and provide delivery services for their products beyond the borders of their community. The problem for a rural entrepreneur utilizing these sites, is having a reliable fast connection to promote their businesses on these platforms. According to the organization, Affordable High-Speed Internet for America News, high speed internet availability in rural areas is an opportunity for urban based businesses in such fields as "graphic design, website design," and other related services to expand into this new revenue stream derived from various levels of rural enterprises. Farmers would also benefit with speedy internet services in receiving current information on a real time basis such as commodity prices, weather information, and additional on-going markets for their products both domestically and globally.
The California health industry is reforming the model of health care to the public moving into online services. Commonly referred to as telehealth, medical facilities offer website presence, where a patient can register for an account, and obtain medical services through virtual visit interactions with their primary care provider. Megan Nelson, writing for the organization, Farm Bureau, The Unified National Voice of Agriculture, emphasized the importance of broadband access to these teleservices, in her article, "Rural American's Health Depends Upon Broadband Access." According to Nelson, telehealth services offers accessibility to medical services beyond their rural communities where availability of primary care physicians is traditionally sparse. Especially for an aging population who may not be able to travel. Therefore, in a critical health moment, a given rural patient can virtually seek and obtain almost immediate medical assistance from health services outside of a rural area where such help may not be available, provided they have high speed internet response, and the infrastructure to support it.
Space X's Starlink beta high speed satellite internet beta test in Washington State in 2020, revealed results demonstrating the value improved internet infrastructure contributes to public safety amidst disasters. Washington's state military employed Starlink services during their August 2020 wildfire period. The system was faster to set up and reliable. This compared to other internet services with time consuming equipment set-up during emergency situations when time was of the essence, and communication speeds slow and difficult to gain connection. Furthermore, functioning in areas where internet connection does not exist. During these emergency services, the Washington State military wildfire defense operation were able to provide those families who lost their internet connections during wildfire incidences with Starlink satellite internet access for their personal use. (Sheetz, "Investing in Space, Washington Emergency Responders First to Use SpaceX's Starlink Internet in the Field: It's Amazing).
Education in rural areas, especially in sectors of low income populations, suffers due to poor internet services, or no access. According to Jackie Potts and Richard Cano, in their article for North Coast Journal of Politics & Art, "Why Millions of California Students Lack Broadband Access," urban and rural communities with large population of impoverished students who received public education prior to going online during the pandemic, were unable to afford internet service. Affordability became an obstacle. This in combination with an inadequate broadband infrastructure providing unreliable access for those having online connections. A March 2021 Census Bureau survey revealed that one out of every five California households had inadequate internet connections. This subjected students to unreliable virtual education internet receptions. The authors indicate such interruptions had the possibility of causing these students to lose interest in education or affect their learning performance resulting in lower grade averages.
There are many opportunities in commerce, education, community, and health care available to rural communities in California through virtual access. However, in order to have those opportunities, rural communities must have the high speed internet service, and the infrastructure that supports it to have access to those opportunities.
Bibliography
Backof, Peter. "Broadband Initiatives: Enhancing Lives and Transforming Communities." Affordable High-Speed Internet for America News, Analysis. Advocacy. https://cwalocals.org/system/files/broadband_initatives_enhancing_lives.pdf. 2007 (accessed June 20 2021).
Mackovich, Ron. "California Surpasses 90% Internet Connectivity, But Low-income Households Still Lack Access." USC News, Science/Technology. https://news.usc.edu/183952/california-internet-access-usc-survey-broadband-connectivity/.March 30, 2021 (Accessed June 20 2021).
Nelson, Megan. "Rural Americans' Health Depends upon Broadband Access." Farm Bureau, The Unified National Voice of Agriculture. https://www.fb.org/market-intel/rural-americans-health-depends-on-broadband-access. April 13, 2020 (Accessed June 21, 2021).
Potts, Jackie, and Richard Cano. "Why Millions of California Students Lack Broadband Access." North Coast Journal of Politics, People, & Art. https://www.northcoastjournal.com/NewsBlog/archives/2021/04/28/why-millions-of-california- students-lack-broadband-access. April 28, 2021 (Accessed June 23, 2021).
Sheetz, Michael. CNBC. "Investing in Space, Washington Emergency Responders First to Use SpaceX's Starlink Internet in the Field: It's Amazing." https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/29/washington-emergency-responders-use-spacex-starlink-satellite-internet.html. September 29, 2020 (Accessed June 22, 2021).