Author Topic: FCC needs to acknowledge Starlink role in providing rural broadband  (Read 614 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Elderberry

  • TBR Contributor
  • *****
  • Posts: 24,284
Cardinal News  by Jack Kennedy 5/31/2022

The satellite-based internet service is especially important to Appalachia and other rural areas.

Bridging the educational gap between urban-suburban areas like Northern Virginia and rural ones like Wise Country, in the Central Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, has long been an objective of countless leaders in the public policy space, from FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel to Sen. Mark Warner to Rep. Don Beyer to Rep. Morgan Griffith to Sen. Joe Manchin. It underlies concerns about the need to roll out more broadband, and faster, which the nation has heard about for more than a decade and that last year’s bipartisan infrastructure law should help make a reality.

However, laying cable takes time and money. In many rural areas around the country, the education gap is already being bridged through deployment of solutions that are here today—namely next-generation satellite services. Starlink, which has recently gained a lot of praise for stepping in to ensure ongoing Internet service in war-torn Ukraine, is the most well-known of these, but it is not the only one. Other names you will hear mentioned a lot if you dabble in this space are Kuiper, and OneWeb.

I have worked with Starlink to bring next-generation satellite service to Central Appalachian school children, and am currently working on a project to ensure more access to telemedicine services through this type of satellite Internet deployment. This matters greatly in this area, which is in many represents classic Appalachia.

More: https://cardinalnews.org/2022/05/31/fcc-needs-to-acknowledge-starlink-role-in-providing-rural-broadband/