Digital Yeomen Needed to Connect All Americans

We came across a nice social media post which celebrates over 25 years of service by WISPA member Amplex, and its founder, Mark Radabaugh. What a tremendous achievement for Mark and his community.?

They’ve got a good egg there.

What really struck me, however, were these lines in the post:

“What does an electrical engineer do when there’s no internet service where he lives? He starts his own.”

I think not only does that tell the story of Mark and the success he’s had, but also that of over 2,700 other WISPs who, like Mark, serve the hardest to reach, ignored or forgotten areas of the country with reliable and evolutionary broadband.

They see a need. And, oftentimes in the most unforgiving situations, fill it, delivering broadband where it wasn’t.

Digital yeomen.

As you many know, the WISP industry has undergone an amazing amount of change of late. Not just technologically – such as deploying fiber?and?wireless solutions where needed – but also in adapting to business model challenges which have upended prior workflows. Companies like Mark’s still rely on private risk to build their networks. With it, they move into or create new markets altogether, essentially without permission or government say-so (unlike others who need to see Uncle Sam’s support before deploying service).?

This agility, or “get ‘er doneness” if you will, has played an enormous if underestimated role in reducing the digital divide, working in no small measure to narrow the numbers of those without broadband by millions in the past couple of years alone.

But, with the advent of the BEAD NOFO and other similar government deployment programs, their role in getting their communities online has been put to the test.

In a practical sense, these programs actually get in the way of eradicating the divide – the very opposite of their stated goals. Their breadth, complexity and, especially in the case of BEAD, their rigid technical limitations significantly constrain who and what can be used by states to close gaps in the unserved. In doing so, they’ve essentially sidelined the very parties who can quickly, cost-effectively and sustainably bring connectivity to communities that don’t have access.

You know, it almost sounds like the wind-up to a joke:

“What does an electrical engineer do when there’s no internet service where he lives?…”

WISPs know. Their communities, too. Millions of Americans also. Mark and the others are exactly what this country needs to connect all with reliable broadband. In whatever fashion it takes. With the right tool for the job.

“…He starts his own.”

Thankfully.

But Uncle Sam – does he know? Could he really have companies like Mark’s riding the pine in service of some so-called “future proof” vision of America?

We have it here. Now. In Mark and 2,700 other WISPs.

No joke there.