Reasons Why Rural Areas Need High-Speed Internet
Across the country, and all over the world, the pandemic has created emigration out of cities and major urban areas to regions that are rural. With the increase in remote work, many people are enjoying quieter communities and more affordable options for housing that are located in these areas. In addition, this trend has further opened up other issues such as the lack of high-speed internet in rural areas in the U.S. 65% of residents in the U.S. have access to broadband internet. Remote workers are not the only people who require rural wireless internet. Others have grown dependent on it as well, including librarians and farmers who can also enjoy the benefits that 4G LTE wireless internet has to offer.
Benefits of High-Speed Internet in Rural Areas
Empowers Small Business Owners
For both home-based businesses and businesses that are located in rural areas, having reliable broadband internet is important to help lower costs and increase revenue. Drops and connection outages can cost a lot of money. Additionally, activities such as virtual video meetings require strong bandwidth that only broadband can deliver.
Builds Stronger Communities
High-speed internet that is fixed has the ability to strengthen remote rural communities by connecting them with the rest of the economy. In addition, it will extend resources to people that would otherwise not have access to them.
Expands Options for Health Care
High-speed internet access is beneficial to health care in rural households as well, especially for those specialists that may be located even further away. Options for virtual healthcare include video call appointments with medical providers, and this requires reliable bandwidth connections.
Access to Educational Resources
Nowadays, online education is only a click away. Many young people leave to pursue college. However, post-secondary colleges are expanding their presence online. However, many people run into a barrier when it comes to accessing the high-speed internet. The majority of these programs utilize virtual meetings, cloud computing, and much more.
Create Efficient Farms
For farmers that are located in rural areas, smarter technology can give them real-time access to important information that is located around their landholdings. However, again, this would require high-speed internet access on their main building in combination with transmitters that are wired to additional locations on their farm.
Read: Fiber Optic Internet: Some Benefits and Disadvantages
Empowering Autonomous Farms
Besides just helping farmers access important information in real-time, high-speed internet access to their farm can open the doors to using autonomous farming equipment such as the new self-driving tractors by John Deere. Doing so can help increase productivity and lower the cost of labor.
In the U.S. there are initiatives that are taking place at the federal level to help bring high-speed internet access to rural areas. In the U.S., the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund has been awarded $9.2 billion to providers to deliver broadband to approximately 5.2 million households across the U.S.
As broadband internet is delivered to more rural areas across the country, it is vital that electrical contractors and integrators keep in mind that FTTH/FTTP networking shouldn’t stop at the door. It is imperative that broadband and fiber connections be delivered and distributed throughout the home through Ethernet access points and via media panels.
