Home / Farm / Broadband Reaches Rural Residents in Mississippi
By Katie Murray Alt |
Mississippi ranks 45th for internet coverage among the 50 states and the District of Columbia, according to the research group BroadbandNow. The Office of Broadband Expansion and Accessibility of Mississippi (BEAM) is determined to improve that ranking.
The BEAM office, under the direction of former state Sen. Sally Doty, was inaugurated in July 2022 with the purpose of expanding connectivity to unserved and underserved areas throughout the state.
Unserved and Underserved
Doty’s office is currently buckling down to make sure they know exactly where those areas are by creating a map for their office, community and providers to use.
“We are looking to define truly high-speed internet as 100 megabits per second (Mbps) down and 20 Mbps up for the purposes of our program,” Doty says. “If an address cannot get any service that is up to that speed and does not have other federal funding, they are eligible.”
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The current map can be found at BEAM.ms.gov. Of the more than 1,312,150 broadband serviceable locations in Mississippi, more than 134,170 are unserved and more than 23,120 are underserved.
Kirby Mauldin, a poultry and cattle farmer from Laurel, has one of those homes and businesses where the lack of high-speed internet affects both his farming operation and his young adult kids at home.
“The internet that I have at my house is not sufficient for my daughter to do her graduate schoolwork,” Mauldin says. “It’s also not at my farm where I can use it on my farm with the technology that we have in the chicken house.”
For now, Mauldin’s children must travel either to the local college where his wife works or to his parents’ house to use the internet. However, the farm is still without service.
“My farm is 23 years old, and I’ve got older controllers in those houses,” he says. “If I had internet access, I could put updated controllers in there and I could look at it on my phone and be able to tell what happened and exactly what I need to do at that time.”
Until that happens, Mauldin or an employee must always remain near the poultry houses in case of any urgent issues.
Broadband Funding Allocated
Prior to the existence of BEAM, several different funding sources were designated for broadband buildout in Mississippi. In 2020, $450 million was awarded for Mississippi locations under the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund administered by the Federal Communications Commission. Additionally, the 2020 Mississippi Legislature directed $75 million of CARES Act funding primarily to electric power associations for broadband infrastructure buildout. In February of 2022, the Public Utilities Staff was awarded a $32-million grant for 10 projects across the state that will serve approximately 12,000 locations.
Currently, the BEAM office is in the process of awarding $162 million to approximately 40,000 locations under the capital projects fund that is part of the American Rescue Plan Act. Lastly, is the $1.2 billion under the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program that was awarded from the federal government in 2023. BEAM recently completed a five-year plan for how the money will be distributed.
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“In Mississippi, we plan to distribute the $1.2 billion to internet service providers for deployment of broadband infrastructure,” Doty says. “The unserved and underserved are the most difficult and the most costly to reach.”
The program will be a competitive grant process.
“Our office understands the importance and the urgency of this project,” Doty says.“We are working as hard as we can to fulfill all the federal requirements so we can move forward and get this money out the door.”
With their initial map finalized, the office is doubling down to make sure it is correct through a challenge process where the map can be challenged by local governments, nonprofits or providers.
Rural Revitalization
When it comes to rural farming communities like Mauldin’s, there is grave concern that the lack of broadband access is putting Mississippi farmers at a disadvantage.
“The farming communities are missing out,” Doty says. “There are a lot of new and innovative technologies in the world of precision ag that we want our ag families to be able to take advantage of.”
After a few phone calls, Mauldin says he was able to kick-start the process of getting high-speed internet access at his house.
“I was the very first non-power association customer that has internet fiber run to the house,” he says. “I’m excited and thankful that Congress passed this to get it to the rural areas. It’s going to help farming and we’re trying to produce more and more with fewer farmers every day.”
Mauldin feels that improving the internet in rural communities will also attract people to the area.
“With them running fiber, we are becoming a more attractive place for people to come and to raise their families,” Mauldin says.
Doty agrees. “We worry about keeping young people in those communities,” she says. “Having high-speed internet provides a lot of opportunities while still living on the family farm in a more rural area.”
