Mississippians deserve improved internet/broadband/cell phone and general digital service

Mississippi’s new agency working to enhance internet and broadband connectivity in rural areas will always be checking its devices to ensure progress is being made.

That’s because the state’s connectivity to the digital world is so temperamental that it’s often difficult to know from one outpost to another whether service exists at all.

It’s also unhealthy because this is the most healthcare and educationally challenged state in America. Our citizens and children require improved internet/broadband/cell phone and general digital service to survive those hurdles of life.

Former President Ronald Reagan in 1986 said, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’”

The good news is that help really is on the way to connect as many Mississippi households as quickly as possible — and government is leading the charge.

That effort is full speed ahead, guided by Sally Doty who was appointed by Gov. Tate Reeves in April 2022 as director of the new Office of Broadband Expansion and Accessibility of Mississippi. Its main duty is to administer millions in federal funding to improve service through additional broadband infrastructure.

A Brookhaven resident and former state senator representing Southwest Mississippi, Doty has had major experience working on this issue. As chair of the Senate Energy Committee, she pushed new laws to power up broadband service in the state’s rural areas, which is most of Mississippi in land area.

Doty left the Senate to become executive director of the State Public Utilities Staff, an advisory panel to the State Public Service Commission. There, she gained real-world knowledge on the state’s broadband accessibility problems. Later, Doty was appointed by Reeves to run the BEAM office.

BEAM will have oversight from the governor, lawmakers and the State Department of Finance and Administration, but not from a state board, commission or the State Public Records Act.

Sooner or later, inquiring minds will want to know everything going on in the office, chiefly because of the vast amount of federal funds being used to improve basic digital infrastructure — and because when citizens start typing on a digitized machine, they expect immediate results no matter where they live.

In recent weeks, the office has received $162 million in federal funds to be granted this fall to firms for infrastructure construction in unserved broadband areas of the state, plus auxiliary needs.

Mississippi’s portion of the $42 billion coming from the 2021 federal bipartisan infrastructure law is $1.2 billion, allocated in June. The amounts are high because the broadband needs nationally are monumental.

No area of Mississippi will go untouched as Doty and staff ramp up all this work. Considerable mapping of the state showing where “served, unserved and underserved” areas are located has been completed, although, again, the maps will always need retouching.

Her home area of Southwest Mississippi, particularly in Wilkinson, Amite, Franklin and Walthall counties, might need the most attention on connectivity issues. Some might have believed the Delta region to be the worst off, but electric cooperatives have done wonders there, Doty said, adding that 17 of the state’s 25 rural electric cooperatives have been working on the many infrastructure challenges as far back as 2019.

Doty urges the public to log on to www.broadbandms.com or call or text “Internet” to 601-439-2535 to report inadequate or nonexistent Internet service. The data will help determine the state’s federal funding to expand digital services.

Already there are comparisons between Doty’s task and officials who helped bring electricity to the rural South in the 1930’s. It seems a valid comparison.

— Mac Gordon is a native of McComb. He is a retired newspaperman. He can be reached at macmarygordon@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: MS residents deserve improved internet broadband service