Broadband Internet Is Like The Telephone, It’s A Necessity Today

By Nathan Young on June 10, 2015

These days, I think that having broadband internet in your home, even if you are in poverty or live in a rural area without high speed internet, is a necessity. Let me tell you why! Today, just about everything is done via the internet, from applying to jobs, to paying bills, to scheduling appointments, to learning, to watching entertainment, and much more. Back about 50 years ago, the landline telephone was the game changing technology that everyone had to have, because not having it meant a harder time living your life. Today, broadband internet is like the old fashioned telephone, you need it!

So, I read an article from Senator Tom Whatley saying the broadband internet is key for expansion and growth in Alabama. He compared growing broadband internet in Alabama to Eisenhower’s Interstate Highway System and cities and counties investing in modern water and sewer systems. These programs helped to grow local economies and it meant new good paying jobs. The same thing can be said about expanding high speed internet coverage to all areas of Alabama. It would be a gamechanger!

In some areas of Alabama, they are already changing the game for super fast high speed internet. Huntsville is expected to start rolling out a new 100-gig high speed internet plan this year. And some areas of Alabama like Opelika have their own city run high speed internet coverage. But, other than the cable and phone companies, most of Alabama has no access to high speed internet, unless you have the money to pay the cable or internet companies. And some people in Alabama only can rely on dial up for internet, and that needs to end. Today, only about 68% of people in Alabama have access to high speed internet, it should be 100 percent!

Private companies should be forced to make sure everyone who wants broadband internet has the choice to get it! People in rural areas should not have to drive for hours to get to a library or a McDonald’s just to have the chance to access the high speed internet that they should have at home. It was like this when electricity first came out, then the landline telephone came out. Some rural areas did not have any access to power or the phone, and it took the government to force private companies to make sure everyone had access to these life changing services. The same thing should be said about broadband internet.

More and more businesses and companies are demanding that all areas have high speed internet, or they will skip Alabama and go somewhere else. It’s time for the cable and phone companies to provide the necessary service everyone should have a chance to get. People in rural areas should not be handcuffed to slow dial-up, slow satellite internet, or cell phone internet with extremely tight data caps. They should have the same broadband services people in the urban areas gets. And I would also say this, I think broadband internet should be subsidized, like those free cell phones people on welfare gets.

Today, broadband internet is just as important as water, and electricity. We should find any way necessary to make sure private companies make sure everyone has access to broadband internet. It’s a necessity!