For all Americans, the coronavirus crisis has been a shocking wake-up call to the fragility of our health and economic infrastructures. It has also opened our eyes to the critical importance of the broadband internet infrastructure.
Across this country, tens of millions of people are now telecommuting, taking part in distance learning, and even videoconferencing with their physicians. This interaction is made possible by enabling technologies operating over broadband connections.
It is very frustrating to me that too many West Virginians are without broadband at home, for various reasons, that keep them from taking advantage of technology advancement.
Long dominated by energy, petrochemicals and tourism, we need to diversify our West Virginia economy to include the high-wage, high-tech jobs that empower employees to leverage new technologies for participation in the rapidly expanding knowledge sector.
Unfortunately, the innovation and creativity of West Virginia’s citizens is going untapped because they don’t have access to reliable, high-speed broadband.
There has been a great working relationship between Senator Joe Manchin and Senator Shelley Moore Capito to champion broadband for West Virginia. Sen. Capito has made it a centerpiece of her time in the Senate, and Sen. Manchin has aggressively pushed for grant funding to enable its expansion. I applaud and thank them for their efforts.
The logical next step is for both to masterfully apply their consensus-building skills and lead the effort to modernize telecom laws. This is a critical enabler for completing the broadband buildout into every rural community, protecting the open internet, and kicking this broadband investment miracle — $80 billion a year — into even higher gear.
Making sure that every West Virginia home and business is connected to high speed internet is critical to our successful participation in the 21st-century economy. But today, West Virginia trails all but five states in broadband access — more than 15 percent of our residents aren’t reached by high-speed networks.
Nationwide, nearly 30 percent of rural Americans aren’t connected at home; and 60 percent of rural health- care facilities don’t have a high-speed connection.
The rural divide is a complex challenge that requires decisions about where to build wired networks, where wireless or satellite solutions might work better, and how to promote digital literacy.
In the 2009 economic stimulus legislation, billions in broadband funding for the Rural Utility Service (RUS) were supposed to connect 7 million rural households, but ended up connecting fewer than 1 million.
The initial review indicates that because of poor planning and management, much of this money was never spent, or instead built duplicative networks in areas that already had broadband networks. Congress should adopt needed reforms in the next phase of federal stimulus legislation to make sure these problems aren’t repeated and the job finally gets done.
But targeted federal aid is only one piece of the puzzle. Policymakers also need to promote a regulatory environment that will encourage private investment.
For decades, broadband in the U.S. has generally been regulated with a “light touch” — an approach that has attracted more than $1.7 trillion in infrastructure investment. But this consensus approach has taken on some shrapnel lately because some want to use open internet legislation — an idea I generally support — as a vehicle to further regulate the 21st-century broadband as if it were a 20th- century utility service like the old telephone monopolies.
Protecting an open internet by outlawing blocking, throttling, or gatekeepers is a good idea — particularly now, when so many rely on connectivity during the crisis. But West Virginia’s economy can’t afford to be frozen in the last century, and neither can the nation’s broadband regulations.
This is where our two pragmatic senators — with the reputation for getting things done — come in. We need consensus legislation to focus federal aid more surgically and to protect an open internet without choking private investment with outdated utility rules.
We’ve seen a whopping $2 trillion of private investment in broadband infrastructure in the last two decades because federal legislators once knew how to create this kind of crucial balance.
Here in West Virginia, the I-79 Technology Park is a perfect example of what can happen when pragmatic civic leadership is combined with significant private investment.
Located along Interstate 79, the park has attracted several advanced federal operations providing more than $650 million in contracting over the last two years alone.
This contracting activity has attracted several knowledge-sector businesses who provide more than 1,200 high-wage jobs. A significant part of the attractiveness of the I-79 Technology Park is its broadband capacity.
There has been a $200+ million infrastructure investment in the I-79 Technology Park over the last decade that included expansion to 400-gigabit-per-second telecommunications capability. The significant infrastructure investments — most importantly broadband — positioned the I-79 Technology Park as a nationally competitive location for federal operations.
These federal operations, by providing substantial contracting opportunities, have helped establish a business case for knowledge-sector companies to want to operate in our area.
This economic ecosystem has made the I-79 Technology Park an epicenter for the growth of knowledge-sector jobs. Further, the growth of knowledge sector jobs has established a corollary business case for telecommunications companies to expand their broadband infrastructure expanding access. We call this economic diversification strategy the “Federal Anchor Model.”
This would have likely been a pipe dream — literally — if the networks were regulated like clunky utilities. Europe has tried this approach, and it is failing.
We cannot afford to make that mistake; instead, we need to strategically repeat the Federal Anchor Model all over the state.
When public policymakers and private investors think of high tech, they think of places like Seattle, Austin, Silicon Valley or the Research Triangle in North Carolina. At this critical moment, senators Manchin and Capito can take strong steps to make sure that the Mountain State is also synonymous with the knowledge sector.