Although Mississippi’s congressional delegation was largely opposed to the 2021 legislation that is providing additional federal funding to expand broadband access in rural areas, this state is now excited to get the money.
On Monday, the Biden administration announced that Mississippi will receive $1.2 billion of the $42 billion provided in the Infrastructure and Jobs Act of 2021 to bring high-speed internet service to areas that don’t currently have it.
If you crunch the numbers, Mississippi will do quite well by the allocation. The state accounts for less than 1% of the nation’s population, but it will receive about 3% of the money. That’s because, being a heavily rural state, we have a higher proportion of unserved or underserved homes and businesses than the national average.
In making this week’s allocation announcement, President Biden echoed what others have said previously, including Brandon Presley, who as public service commissioner successfully advocated for allowing rural electric cooperatives, including Greenwood-based Delta Electric, to provide internet service as well as electricity.
The expansion of broadband today in the United States, said the president, can be compared to what happened in rural America almost a century ago when electricity was brought to thinly populated areas that didn’t previously have it. It required government help to make the investment initially work, since it’s a lot more expensive to provide the infrastructure for a utility when customers live far apart.
Although high-speed internet service might not be quite as central to a person’s comfort as electricity, it’s not far behind. In today’s internet-based world, having a slow or no internet connection is debilitating. It limits access to education, entertainment, health care, commerce and communication. It makes it difficult to do business. A place without good internet service is a place where few people in today’s America want to live.
Only two members of Mississippi’s congressional delegation — Rep. Bennie Thompson and Sen. Roger Wicker — seemed to recognize this when they voted two years ago for the legislation, which also included more than a trillion dollars for roads, bridges and other infrastructure.
Mississippi’s other senator and three House members let politics — namely being against anything that Democrats advocated — put blinders on them. It’s a vote they hope people in this state will forget.
