News

Rural electric coops suited to provide broadband

A lender to rural cooperatives says electric cooperatives will play a vital role in bridging the rural broadband service gap.  Doran Dennis with CoBank tells Brownfield only half of rural residents have access to broadband service.  He says electric co-ops have much of the infrastructure and technology to become high-speed internet providers.

“They’re positioned in a way that they have many advantages over other providers to be able to deploy these services and this high-speed internet in a way that’s both cost effective and a way that strengthens that relationship with the rural communities,” Dennis told Brownfield Ag News.

Co-Mo Electric has become a rural broadband provider in Missouri.  CEO Ken Johnson tells Brownfield the co-op has completed the building of fiber-optic cable broadband delivery to its entire service area.

“We’ve built over 3,000 miles of fiber on our backbone electric system,” said Johnson, during an interview with Brownfield, “and we’re providing service to more than 15,500 subscribers today.”

Johnson says the challenge in providing broadband service is for those co-ops whose customer density falls below six per mile.  Co-Mo’s density is almost eight customers per mile.

AUDIO: Doran Dennis and Ken Johnson (18 min. MP3)