McCaskill Aims for Certainty for Rural, Agricultural Communities with Better Rural Broadband Access

Bipartisan effort seeks to ensure quality access for rural areas—only 40 percent of rural Missourians have such access

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill this week joined a bipartisan effort with dozens of her colleagues in support of improving broadband service for rural and underserved regions.

In a recent letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler, McCaskill and her colleagues asked the agency to support increases for rural mobile broadband through the agency’s Mobility Fund. The challenge is evident in Missouri, where only 40 percent of rural Missourians have high-speed broadband access.

“Without the certainty that essential mobile broadband infrastructure will be deployed and maintained, investments in agricultural productivity will be delayed or bypassed altogether, and the potential efficiencies and benefits to rural communities will be lost,” wrote McCaskill and colleagues, stressing the need for quick action on the issue. “The extension of high-speed mobile and backhaul facilities to agricultural croplands and ranch lands must keep pace with the ongoing deployment of technology in the field.”

“The expansion of rural broadband should be a top priority of federal and state policymakers, as expanded deployment in rural areas will address important economic, educational, health care, and public safety goals,” the Senators added.

McCaskill has fought to ensure access for rural and outlying communities, previously sponsoring the Community Broadband Act to ensure localities the right to build municipal broadband networks.

Read the full letter here.

Visit mccaskill.senate.gov/rural to learn more about McCaskill’s fight to protect rural Missouri.

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