Editor’s note: This op-ed is by state Sen. Kevin J. Mullin, R-Rutland, assistant minority leader and chair of the Senate Education Committee.
Broadband is the 21st Century equivalent of electricity and the telephone rolled into one. It is a tool that is finding its way into more and more facets of daily life for people around the country and the globe. Broadband is providing new and innovative means for improving healthcare, education and business across a large swath of industries.
The problem for areas like Rutland County and much of rural Vermont is that we are being left behind, while the urban areas of our country are speeding ahead. Because of this, I strongly support the pending merger between AT&T and T-Mobile. If federal regulators approve the merger, the proposal promises a potential boon for the state of Vermont because AT&T has promised to make a significant investment in Vermont by building out their 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) network.
This type of service is absolutely essential to economic development and the growth of small businesses, the workhorses of our economy. A broadband connection opens up a whole new world of possibilities to small businesses in our state. It allows businesses access to more suppliers, therefore more competitive prices for the goods needed to produce their products. More technology-based small businesses or entrepreneurs could choose areas like Rutland County as their home, taking advantage of our great quality of life while running cutting-edge businesses. More of our businesses will also have access to the global marketplace, which is becoming more important in the ever-shrinking world that we live in.
Finally, broadband and cellular connections allow our businesses to compete for top employees, many of whom no longer want to live in areas where they don’t have these services.
Broadband isn’t just important to our current economic development, it is absolutely essential for our future. The educational potential provided by the Internet is enormous. Not all of our schools have access to the broadband pipelines that they need. Without this technology we are not providing our children with the tools they need to succeed. Remote classrooms are becoming more and more common around the country, and we need to stay on top of that trend. These classrooms will allow students in towns like Poultney to take a class that may not be offered in their school, such as Chinese, via the Web with a teacher in a town like Essex. Not only do broadband connections provide our kids with opportunities to learn what would have been unheard of a generation ago, it is becoming essential to success in a modern academic world. Students just cannot perform the research that they need to be successful in their classes without having access to broadband either at home, the library or school.
The areas listed above are just a few of the aspects of daily life that are improved through broadband technology, hardly scratching the surface. Most homeowners don’t know that they would probably have to sell their homes at a discounted value if they don’t have a broadband connection. Vermont is making a diligent effort to get broadband to the last mile by 2013; through government grants and loans, we are closer. With a privately financed project like the one AT&T is promising, if their merger is successful, we could be even closer without spending more taxpayer dollars. This merger makes sense for Rutland County, where the broadband benefits are just too big to ignore.
