Hello.

I hope this follow-up letter finds each of you well. Team SEMO continues to count on our continued great relationships with each of our Senate/Congressional leadership in DC. The importance of delivering safe, reliable, affordable electricity, now combined with fiber broadband for so much of our area, puts us in a new space of advocacy that we aren’t familiar with and, admittedly, clumsy at much of the time. Please know your continued support of rural electricity, and now rural fiber, is recognized.

SEMO Electric Cooperative serves 16,225 (+-) active meters along 2600 miles (+-) in our 6-county service territory of Southeast Missouri. Our fiber subsidiary, GoSEMO Fiber LLC, has 11,750 (+-) fiber subscribers connected to Gigabit capable symmetrical speed fiber optic internet.  

The recent series of tornadoes and wind storms, with damages to date well into the millions of dollars, have made for a long, tough spring. These storms make one thing abundantly clear…the importance of fiber broadband infrastructure in rural areas! Our ability as a utility to communicate, mobilize resources, and help in restoring things back to as normal as possible was because of this very key infrastructure that is fortunately in place in our area.

Julie Gronski, of the Wayne County Broadband Group, and I talked briefly back and forth in the midst of the storm. Julie has been working on getting fiber in Wayne County for literally years, and these storms and that conversation run in the very same lane. With BEAD, Wayne County could be similarly set with fiber optic backbone to carry the necessary communications involved in any modern restoration effort.

SEMO Electric has applied for projects in 7 counties in the BEAD program. We will effectively close the digital divide in these project areas if fortunate enough to be awarded. But regardless if the provider is us or someone else, a fiber network is the infrastructure needed to future-proof and provide for generations. This is, better stated, a necessary infrastructure plan for rural Missouri…not just a connectivity want. 

We cannot be overlooked and handed inferior technology for next generation communication without the knowledge that, if and when counted on the most, a fiber end-to-end network will ALWAYS be better than anything satellite or wireless. Cellular lives on fiber backhaul, most businesses are now connected with VoIP telephone, most critical facilities and schools use VoIP telephone, most sheriff depts and city government use VoIP telephone. These systems cannot operate without fiber optic networks. Power to run these can be backed up by generator power and most of the time VoIP phones and internet can be back up and operational long before power is restored.

All of that to get to this: Missouri must have this BEAD funding to proceed with the fiber-first approach that Missouri needs and that our MO Broadband Office has built its plan around. The districts/constituents represented by each of your offices need this to be loud and clear while we have this great opportunity. Please do not let us fall behind with inferior technology when we have the option for fiber! Satellite will have a place (a big one no doubt), but it will never and just can’t be equal to a fiber backbone infrastructure that BEAD is set to make happen in Missouri’s application. 

This article is a good explanation of the difference between fiber and the other technologies for the long term. 

Thanks again for all you do and know that my intention is (selfishly) the very best for our service area, but also for our wider region (like Wayne County) and statewide that we won’t even serve.

Thank you,

Loyd Rice
Senior Manager of Fiber Services
Economic Development, Legislative Relations
SEMO Electric Cooperative & GoSEMO Fiber

The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring that all people in the U.S. have access to competitive, High-Performance Broadband regardless of where they live or who they are. We believe communication policy - rooted in the values of access, equity, and diversity - has the power to deliver new opportunities and strengthen communities.

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