Follow Us 
Related News
Current Poll
| Small Towns Deserve Big Tech |
 |
 |
 |
| Opinion | |||
| Written by Travis Perry | |||
| Wednesday, 04 November 2009 08:00 | |||
It’s no secret that small towns tend to be the last places reached by the long arm of technical innovation. From indoor plumbing to telephone service, it often has taken extensive measures to ensure that small communities receive the same benefits as their larger counterparts.  Often, companies hide behind the excuse that it is simply not profitable enough to justify bringing their service, or the highest tier of their service, to small communities. It even took a congressional act in 1936 to bring electricity to rural areas of the nation. However, each and every one of these services has reached nearly every community across America after the public and our leaders cried out that it was necessary to move forward as a nation. We face that same kind of demand yet again — this time with the need to hook our communities, businesses, schools and homes up to the great information superhighway that is the Internet. It is at times mind boggling to think that the vast majority of Americans have transformed from having a technologically untethered life to a wired one in the span of less than two decades. And yet when we examine how integral the Internet is to our daily activities, it is easy to see that it is quickly becoming less of a luxury item and more of a necessary utility. Shifting gears for a moment, consider the grid that crisscrosses our nation, supplying our lives with electricity to power our homes, machines and other aspects of our lives. We receive a steady flow of 120 volts at 60 hertz, no more, no less. It’s something we’ve come to expect, whether we’re plugging in a lamp in Osawatomie or powering up a cell phone in New York City. Imagine if the power supply were not uniform, but rather that the voltage and consistency suddenly changed and that delivery methods varied wildly from town to town. It’s easy to imagine the public outcry that would result. However, we tolerate that same inconsistency with our Internet connections. While larger communities easily garner connection speeds starting at 15 or 20 megabytes per second, in Osawatomie the fastest we can snag for a reasonable price is 3 megabytes per second — a speed that only holds up on the best of days. More and more, the Internet is being used for activities that require higher connection speeds. From streaming video to transferring large files, this is simply the way the world. , adequate Internet service is becoming a major factor that not only benefits communities, but also attracts people to them — therefore, helping them grow. The relatively “small” town of Monticello, Minn., with a population a little more than 11,000, found itself in a similar predicament several years ago. In 2007, the town passed a referendum to install its own fiber-optic system after being repeatedly denied by their regional telephone company, TDS Telecommunications. Shortly after the referendum was passed and right before the city broke ground on the project, TDS filed a lawsuit against the city. While there might be little doubt the suit would have been crushed in court, it prevented the city from moving forward. TDS used the time of the delay to quickly mobilize a fleet of trucks and crew members who began laying fiber-optic cables in Monticello. The company claimed that it would have installed the network earlier if they had known the public desired the service that badly. Somehow, I don’t quite buy this explanation. In any case, the town of Monticello serves as a prime example of what small communities across America can do in order to keep from being left in the technological dust. We should not be content to sit on our hands and let the companies that control our lines of communication bring innovation to us only when it is convenient for them. The quickest way to help put a town on the map is to be a haven for progress — something Osawatomie has a history of being. John Brown and the Adairs were some of the strongest pioneers in the abolitionist movement; Ada Remington helped paved the way for the rights and lifestyle of American women today; Woodland Hills Estates became the first project in the nation completed with American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding. We need to keep small communities from being caught on the wrong side of the widening technological divide.
Set as favorite
Bookmark
Email This
Hits: 515 Trackback(0)
Comments (0)
 Write comment
You must be logged in to post a comment. Please register if you do not have an account yet.
|
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed
