This petition is for those families  and communities that suffer from the lack of opportunity to properly gain access to the internet because of we live out in rural areas. Internet 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. All classes are held virtually which does require a minimum speed to communicate effectively with our teachers and professors.

     I have personally tried everything in my power to try and contact companies to provide better internet service for my community because we a lot of children in our area that need to do their school work. Spectrum specifically said that sine we live just one mile away from where they stop service that the deem it unnecessary to even try to provide us service because it may be too expensive to run new wiring to our  homes, AT&T refuses to provide better service to us because there isn't any other service providers out in our area so they have no other competition so they know they will always have us as customer or we would have no service at all. Even though we call and complain it does nothing we can only get so far, the best service that we can get is 1.5mpbs download and upload speed which is not enough to do school work, not high enough to meet the minimum requirements for internet speed to work at home. 

       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.”

     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.