A few years back, my family had a reunion in Three Creek. We gathered at what remains of my father’s boyhood home for a picnic and reminiscence. As often happens, the discussion turned to the modern conveniences that were lacking when Grandpa was growing up.

“We didn’t have electricity until I was in high school,” Grandpa explained to all the grandchildren.

The youngsters stared sullen-faced with no context for this information. They looked like a horse or a cow when you explain any concept, unable to process the words … lacking the part of the brain necessary.

“It’s a little like when you have poor WiFi at the coffee shop,” I chimed in from the back. Their stares quickly shifted from blank to a knowing recognition that the struggle was real. This is the reality of technological advancement from one generation to the next. In the future, my kids will reminisce, “… and we did it all without robots and teleportation devices.”

Infrastructure that is taken for granted in urban settings often is lacking in rural America. My father grew up without household electricity, but there was a power line passing a half-mile from his house for nearly 50 years before Three Creek acquired a substation to access the power. The refinery for the Elkoro Mine in Jarbidge, Nevada, was powered by electricity as far back as 1919.

I can bring a “back in my day” story to the conversation. I am old enough to remember when Three Creek got telephones. It was installed in 1980 and was a party line system, so sometimes you had to wait your turn to make a phone call. The power bestowed on a gossip when every private phone conversation was public is indescribable. If you think a doom scroll on the socials is an entertaining way to kill an evening, try picking up the phone and eavesdropping on your neighbors.

These communication technologies are described as modern conveniences in the city, but in the country, this is often the only connection we have to the outside world. An example may help. Texting my children that dinner is ready is more convenient than wandering around the homestead personally inviting everyone to our evening meal. That is a modern convenience.

In contrast, when my kids drive to basketball practice over Christmas break, it is 60 miles of snow-blown roads in the early evening. The ability to call if they get into trouble may be the difference between life and death. Cell coverage is non-existent for about 45 of those 60 miles, and this is the struggle with technological infrastructure in rural areas. What may be a modern convenience in urban areas is a lifeline in more rural settings.

About a decade ago, we expanded the Three Creek School by adding a new classroom and a gymnasium. The new building has concrete floors with water, sewer and electrical in the concrete. The architect said that for a few hundred extra dollars, they could lay broadband cable and electrical outlets throughout the floor. The computers in our school could connect to the system without cables strung throughout the classroom. We congratulated ourselves for our forward thinking, even though we couldn’t see the actual future. By the time the project was complete, wireless technology became the new norm. The battery-powered laptops connect to the outside world through a wireless modem in the library. The short story: There are hundreds of dollars of cables and wires tucked neatly into the concrete floors that have never carried a single charge of information. The technology was obsolete before it could be used.

I know, I know … “Good story, Grandpa.” But there is a useful analogy here. On Nov. 15, 2021, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Acts was signed into law. This law allocated $65 billion for broadband connectivity to underserved communities, including rural areas. As that law approaches its fourth anniversary, not a single rural home, library or school is connected because of this funding. Part of the delay is the planning to lay fiber-optic cables over vast open spaces. Meanwhile, Outer Mongolia is relying on Starlink for broadband. Ninety to 95% of the land mass of Outer Mongolia is covered, and 31% of their rural population has high-speed internet, compared to 26% of the rural American population. The population of Outer Mongolia is more spread out and more nomadic than we are, but their rural population is better connected than rural America. 

You’re welcome to check my math, but the $65 billion allocated to rural broadband could buy two Starlink receivers for every one of the 60 million rural Americans. And I know that number would be less because I’m not the only rural American who has children parasitically stealing internet access from their parents.

The need for broadband and other technologies has never been more important. The ability to communicate, meet, work, process data and farm is more efficient with this technology, and parts of rural America may be left behind without the right connectivity. Precision agriculture is one example that may be less effective if your technological connectivity is tethered to a wire. It is my hope that my children and grandchildren will have their own story about when technology came to Three Creek … back in their day.