Grange hails white space proposal as necessary step forward to bridging digital divide

The National Grange applauded today’s announced proposal by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to use unlicensed white space to deliver broadband service to rural residents. The move is another in a growing list by the Chairman and FCC to bridge the digital divide and ensure all Americans have access to broadband.

National Grange President Betsy Huber said the chairman’s proposal will go far to help make reality the expansion of broadband to rural Americans.

“Funding alone cannot get the job done,” Huber said. “While it takes the billions of dollars in investments to ensure that every American has equal access broadband, additional moves like that to allow unused TV channel bands and other spectrum not in use by other services are also a vital component. This proposal would allow for fixed white space devices that would take signals greater distances and better carry signal through various obstacles, a huge move to reduce two of the most vexing pieces of the broadband expansion puzzle for rural Americans – the varied landscape and distance between consumers.”

The organization, which is a member of the Connect Americans Now (CAN) coalition, also signed onto a letter in December urging that the FCC move quickly to take action related to spectrum and white space and led a comment filing in June of 2019. In that filing, the Grange and 24 other CAN member groups, noted that more than 19 million of the estimated 24 million without broadband access in America live in rural communities – a total of 30 percent of those in rural areas.

Huber, who formerly served on the FCC’s Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee from 2017-19, said broadband for rural communities has been the Grange’s top priority for a decade and a half, and the last two years under the leadership of Chairman Pai, more has been done to close the gap than ever before.

“All of the recent progress, from funding to proposed rule changes and more, to increase rural broadband deployment gets us closer than ever to parity in areas such as education, health services and economic progress. Broadband allows rural residents to use telehealth services, complete courses or assignments in their home, buy, sell and trade in real-time and access secure documents on their own networks and devices rather than shared computers at libraries or other facilities,” Huber said, adding, “These measures all help to increase the quality of life of rural Americans, often engaged in agricultural pursuits or serving our nation’s farmers and ranchers.” 

The 152-year-old Grange is not a stranger to advocacy work related to equitable access and wide-ranging projects that require complex and well-organized infrastructure networks, having championed the idea of rural free mail delivery in the late 1800s, rural electrification, water and road projects and rural telephone systems in the early to mid-twentieth century.