Rural Tennesseans spoke loudly and clearly on Election Day: President-elect Donald Trump drew 80 percent or more of the vote in 12 rural Tennessee counties and a clear majority in all rural counties except two.
They voted for Trump because they feel left out, and on Election Night, he spoke about something they are hungry for: improved infrastructure. Today, high-speed internet is one of the most important components of infrastructure to our rural communities.
In Tennessee, we have a head start in many rural counties. Local telecom companies are providing high-speed internet to almost 28,000 hometown businesses across our state, with some small towns receiving gigabit-speed service. The 21 companies that make up the Tennessee Telecommunications Association have run a total of 12,746 miles of fiber in non-urban areas and are making high-speed internet available to more than 137,000 homes.
In two of the state’s most depressed counties, Morgan and Scott, the Highland Telephone Cooperative has made gig fiber service available to 100 percent of homes. Significantly, HTC is providing gig service to schools in the area.
The city of Knoxville does not yet have gig-speed internet, but it is available in places like Oneida and Sunbright.
Brimstone Recreation – located in the heart of Appalachia near Huntsville – is an outdoor haven, offering ATV trails, hunting, fishing, river sports and camping. The growing business attracts as many as 20,000 people a year to its annual Brimstone Paragon recreation and entertainment event. Brimstone is just one Scott County business that has the advantage of high-speed broadband provided by HTC.
There are similar stories in rural communities across Tennessee.
Statewide, TTA members provide broadband to more than 173 schools and 285 cellular towers. They also provide broadband to all the anchor customers in their service areas, such as hospitals, libraries, banks and other major businesses.
Small towns across the nation historically have relied on independent and cooperatively owned telecommunications companies to connect them to the world. These companies began as local providers of phone service in places that the large companies did not serve. Today, quality internet service is every bit as vital to a community as land-line phone service once was.
TTA companies deliver broadband connectivity to 98.3 percent of their customer base, including traditional copper service as well as fiberoptic cable.
“Our area lacks interstates and many economic advantages that other communities enjoy, and we’ve suffered through some extremely high unemployment in recent years,” Mark Patterson of HTC says. “An asset like a gigabit-capable network can be our competitive edge when it comes to bringing in industry and growing existing businesses.”
That is a point that cannot be stressed enough. Technology drives every aspect of business and the economy, and if an area is to thrive and attract employers in the 21st century, it needs access to the latest innovations.
The member companies of the TTA are committed to making sure that those who live and run businesses in our rural areas will not be left behind. They do what the private sector does best: Invest in a community’s success and share in the rewards, as local companies made up of local residents.
Certainly, we need more broadband service to all of the state’s rural areas. However, communities served by TTA members already have a head start on connecting with the economic growth that the president-elect has committed to bringing.
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