Writing Project
Tioga county has many wonderful views and opportunities, but it struggles to provide good internet services for its community.
Broadband Internet in Rural Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania has many opportunities for beautiful views, especially in its predominantly rural areas. However, living in these gorgeous areas comes at a cost. With the lack of internet and broadband, it makes living in the Pennsylvania mountains and valleys a challenge. This is a struggle for residences and has created a real problem for first responders.
In today's society, it is impossible to not have access to the internet. So many people rely on it to do their jobs, do school work, and stay in touch with loved ones. One in five houses in Pennsylvania are without broadband internet. Part of this problem is because it is more costly for internet providers to install it and isn’t cost effective to them. My family and I have personally struggled with internet access where we live. The only providers we can get are not enough to support our household’s use of the internet. It constantly buffers and makes doing simple things like texting my mom back or sending an email a challenge. And, we struggle with the same problem of getting better providers out here because of its cost ineffectiveness. One of the scariest things about this is that if our power goes out, we have no data service to rely on either. We live in a valley of some of the many hills in Pennsylvania, and it can get very windy. Many times a year, the wind will blow down dead trees and hit electricity lines, causing us to lose power. If we needed help, we’d have to drive to the end of our dirt road in dangerous conditions.
Connectivity problems like these affect our first responders as well. They have trouble locating where calls are coming from and can’t reach people on their radios. It is especially important for first responders to have good communication between those who need help and those who can get it to those in need. Without better internet coverage, people are more at risk unnecessarily. Fortunately, AT&T is launching a new FirstNet Cell site which is specifically catered to communication for first responders. However, anybody using AT&T as a provider can have access to FirstNet as long as it has the capacity. Having the FirstNet site will certainly help and improve our communication, but there is still work that needs to be done. President Biden’s infrastructure package will be giving Pennsylvania $100 million that is going to be used primarily for broadband internet.
The need for better broadband internet is never going to go away. It has been an issue that has been pushed aside for way too long. I am glad to see that is now being prioritized not only by our community, but by the state as a whole. It is nice to see people coming together and agreeing as a whole because it’s not seen often. We are taking a step in the right direction, especially for our first responders, but there is still more that could be done. As a town, I think our local providers should be more willing to service houses that may not be cost effective to them. Having good internet is not a want, but a need. We should all be supporting each other to make sure we have those necessities.
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