This petition is for those families  and communities that suffer from the lack of opportunity to properly gain access to the internet and cable because of we live out in rural areas. Internet and cable providers deem us unimportant enough to simply provide service to us who more than ever need a proper internet connection to stay connected with our educational institutes and employers. Due to to the lack of a proper internet connection we as students as employees as families and as a community cannot effectively do our school work or work from home when we need to the most due to the worldwide pandemic of  Covid-19.

     I have personally tried everything in my power to try and contact companies to provide any type of internet service for my community. Armstrong specifically said that since we live just a half mile away from where they stop service that there was nothing they could do without corporate approval. There is absolutely no other internet provider available that would provide strong enough service for me (a government worker) to work from home on our VPN connection. The only service we can get is satellite which does not provide a strong enough speed to meet the minimum requirements for internet speed to work at home. It also has a limit of 20GB a month which would never last working 8 hours a day every day not to mention if our kids need to virtual learning. 

       U.S. department of agriculture  press release No. 0271.18 shows that they are offering up to $600 million in loans and grants to help build broadband infrastructure in rural America. This was released back December 13, 2018 and nothing has yet  been done to help the rural areas of america to gain high-speed internet connection that we should have rights to just like everyone that lives in normal areas. This proves that the government is offering to help but companies are not willing to put forth the effort to help communities in need of better service especially now more than ever. Telecommunications companies, rural electric cooperatives and utilities, internet service providers and municipalities may apply for funding through USDA’s new ReConnect Program to connect rural areas that currently have insufficient broadband service. Answering the Administration’s call to action for rural prosperity, Congress appropriated funds in the fiscal year 2018 budget for this broadband pilot program. USDA Rural Development is the primary agency delivering the program, with assistance from other federal partners.

     USDA says “High-speed internet e-Connectivity is a necessity, not an amenity, vital for quality of life and economic opportunity, so we hope that today rural communities kick off their rural broadband project planning,” Secretary Perdue said. “Under the leadership of President Trump, USDA has worked to understand the true needs of rural communities facing this challenge so we can be strong partners to create high-speed, reliable broadband e-Connectivity.”

President Biden’s bill that he recently signed into law is supposed to put $65 billion towards high-speed internet in rural communities because “he wants every American to have access to high-speed internet” but we are still unable to get any type of internet/cable in our community. 

     With that being said I really encourage everyone to sign this petition to help the communities in rural area that desperately need better internet service to stay connected with their employers or educational institutes. Everyone should have equal rights and equal opportunity regardless of where we may live to have access to better internet service especially now more than ever with everyone forced to stay home. Thank you to anyone willing to read this a support my petition to help the rural communities of america.