What the Iowa Caucus Means for Getting Iowa Online

At rallies and town halls across Iowa, health care, climate change, and education were the top concerns, no matter which candidate was on stage. That’s in line with Gallup polling, which shows infrastructure as thirteenth behind more common concerns like health care, education and economic policy. But the simple question of internet access sits in the background of many of those issues.

According to the Federal Communications Commission's most recent study, only 77 percent of rural Iowans had access to high-speed fixed broadband (25 Mbps down and three up, per FCC standards). That’s only a 17 percent increase over the past five years. Nearly all homes in the urban areas of the state have access to high-speed internet, but rural areas have been slow to catch up, largely because of the sheer expense of connecting them. In some rural communities, a telecommunication company could lay a mile of fiber or coaxial cable and only be able to connect one home. While the Iowa Caucus has brought massive political attention to the small state, little of that attention has gone to the state’s networks. Campaigns have pledged tens of billions toward connecting rural America, but it’s still a secondary issue for the candidates, raising uncomfortable questions about how long towns like Winterset (IA) may have to wait to join the rest of the country online.

This isn’t the first time politicians have made big promises about rural broadband. As part of his 2016 campaign, Donald Trump promised a trillion-dollar infrastructure package that would, in part, fund broadband build-outs in small towns like Osage, Mitchell, and Winterset (IA). But after half a dozen false starts, that infrastructure deal ended up taking a back seat to tax cuts, the abortive Obamacare repeal effort, and the ongoing immigration fight. If any families had counted on President Trump’s infrastructure package, they’re still waiting.