EDITORIAL: Your input could help pave the local 'infobahn'

Dec. 22—IN the internet's earliest days, someone started calling it the "information superhighway."

The name stuck, even though the German translation — "infobahn" — is much cooler.

In many parts of rural America, including some of our own backyards, the infobahn remains, effectively, a dirt road.

Thanks to the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, rural Pennsylvania has a once-in-a-century opportunity to improve its utility service by paving its local infobahn.

The Federal Communications Commission set in 2023 to distribute $42.5 billion earmarked for improving broadband service in unserved and underserved communities. When disbursing those funds, FCC will use its Broadband Service Map (https://broadbandmap.fcc.gov/home) determine how much money each state will receive. There's only one problem.

The map, which depends on reporting by internet service providers, is inaccurate. So state officials are urging rural Pennsylvania residents to check the broadband service at their home address through smartphone apps and, if the findings don't match information found on the map, file a challenge with the FCC.

And the clock is ticking. The FCC deadline for challenges is Jan. 9 — a little more than two weeks from now. Mercer County Commissioner Scott Boyd has released information, including a video tutorial

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qe2MbnXIKjs) made by Clearfield County commissioners demonstrating the FCC map challenge process.

The stakes go beyond simply maximizing Pennsylvania's slice of that $42.5 billion pie.

Under FCC standards, an address with available download speeds of less than 100 megabits per second (mpbs) and upload speeds of less than 20 mbps is considered underserved. Locations with a upload speeds below 25 mbps and download speeds less than 3 mbps are considered unserved.

The FCC estimates that online education and telecommuting becomes a dicey proposition below that 25 mbps download threshold. Too many people fall into that unserved broadband gap.

During the COVID pandemic lockdowns in 2020 and 2021, which forced millions of Americans to work and attend school from home, robust broadband service became a necessity — a necessity out of reach for many people living in rural areas.

Almost 100 years have passed since the last time this country faced a similar situation, delivering electrical service to sparsely populated communities.

Then, as now, private entities were never going to solve the problem — there simply aren't enough people to make construction of the infrastructure profitable.

Then, it was the Rural Electrification Administration — one of the many alphabet soup programs in President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal agenda. Now, it's the bipartisan infrastructure act passed in 2021.

For rural communities, Pennsylvania's share of that $42.5 billion pot could be a game-changer. As telecommuting, tele-education and tele-healthcare become more pervasive, it could allow people to work in Silicon Valley while living in Stoneboro, or see a doctor in Pittsburgh from a home in Pymatuning Township.

It's no guarantee that paving the infobahn in rural Mercer County will attract families and businesses.

But if we don't, we're certain to miss out on the growth. Businesses don't relocate to sites without functioning utility infrastructure — water, electric, gas and sewer service.

And now, "infrastructure" includes "broadband."

So check your online access and if the FCC's map is incorrect as it relates to your home address, let the agency know.

The future depends on it.