1930s electricity co-ops take Internet initiative

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Cooperatives that have been bringing electricity to rural America since the 1930s are getting into the broadband business, now that it's communication and information that power the economy. Allamakee-Clayton cooperative general manager Paul Foxwell said high speed Internet connections could spur development and stem the flow of young people to the cities. His cooperative got a $1.4 million grant under a 2014 federal program to build infrastructure that includes wireless stations and repeaters, and has several hundred fixed wireless subscribers.

"Rural America was being left in the dark with the extension of electricity outside the cities," said Jasen Bronec, CEO of the Delta-Montrose Electric Association. The group in 2015 decided to offer broadband in response to frustrations on farms, ranches and small towns that being unconnected hurts business, hampers access to health care and leaves students behind. Farmers in central Missouri were stuffing notes into their electric bills asking whether the 25,000-member Co-Mo could do anything to help with broadband, the cooperative's General Manager Ken Johnson said. Co-Mo started building its broadband network in 2013 and now has 11,000 subscribers.


1930s electricity co-ops take Internet initiative