National Rural Electric Cooperative Association

Electric cooperatives need Congress to improve critical broadband programs to bring high-speed internet service to rural America, said NRECA CEO Jim Matheson. More than 200 electric co-ops across the US are deploying broadband or developing plans to do so. Matheson asked the committee to make key improvements to broadband programs at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) as it develops the Farm Bill:

In a letter to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) expressed concerns about the Federal Communications Commission's new National Broadband Map and urged the NTIA to provide states with flexibility in determining locations and areas eligible for funding in the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program.

NRECA is forming a new broadband tier of services to help electric cooperatives navigate the challenges of deploying broadband in the communities they serve. The broadband tier “is in response to the telecommunications needs of a significant and growing number of our members,” NRECA CEO Jim Matheson said. “NRECA’s mission is to be an advocate for quality of life in the diverse communities our members serve.

The Federal Communications Commission's Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) Phase I encouraged many with the promise of needed support to connect homes with true broadband services in unserved rural communities. However, RDOF’s Phase I exposed many issues that will likely lead to deployment delays, missed expectations, or worse. Specifically, some applicants that bid in the Gigabit tier have submitted unrealistic wireless network designs that are highly unlikely to produce Gigabit service to rural communities.

On April 10, 2020, Frontier Communications submitted a limited challenge in the above-referenced docket seeking to exclude more than 16,000 census blocks from eligibility in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (“RDOF”) Phase I auction. Appendix 1 of the Frontier Challenge lists census blocks where Frontier asserts that it “has deployed broadband service at speeds of 25/3 Mbps since Frontier’s June 2019 Form 477 and that appear on the Bureau’s preliminary list.” If successful in its entirety, an estimated 400,000 Americans would live in areas that would not be eligible this year for RDOF supp

Gov Ralph Northam (D-VA) grew up on electric cooperative lines and lauds their record of “reliable and efficient energy service.” But at a historic church surrounded by woods in the state’s rural center, he recognized co-ops’ latest role: broadband provider to the underserved. Co-ops “absolutely” have a role in his administration’s goal of connecting every VA resident to highspeed internet access, he said.

Pole attachment rental rates are a fraction of the overall cost to build broadband systems in rural areas. Rather, the major impediments to rural broadband development are low population densities, high capital costs and other major operating expenses in rural areas. Because electric cooperatives are led by and belong to the communities they serve, they are keenly familiar with these challenges.

The lack of broadband access for 6.3 million electric co-op households results in more than $68 billion in lost economic value, according to new research by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA). The new report, Unlocking the Value of Broadband for Electric Cooperative Consumer-Members, investigates the cost of the digital divide and the growing economic advantages to America’s rural communities. The study analyzed the value that households place on broadband access.