Working, schooling, reaching out to others - the virus has made us all understand how important it is to have a good Internet connection. Yet for 62 percent of Nelson County residents, high-speed broadband is not available. Not that government and business at various levels hasn’t been trying. Nelson County itself has installed a fiber-optic network that hooks up 584 residents. CVEC, the electric coop has committed to hooking up every household that is connected to its grid, and has announced its intention to extend broadband to 37,000 of its customers.  Acatel, a local owned Internet provider is pioneering a new wireless technology that is a promising solution to the “last-mile” problem.   

Despite all these efforts, the long-term future of the Internet in rural areas is in doubt as a result of trade policies pursued by the Trump Administration at the highest levels. Like it or not, the focus of innovation in the hardware supporting broadband networks has slowly shifted to Asia, and many of the essential components are only available on a cost-effective basis by importing them from China. Trump’s trade policies have driven up the cost on some components to the point where local providers cannot use them and still keep their businesses financially viable.   

A regional service provider put it this way: “I have lost between $5,000 to $10,000 every month since October 2019 due to tariffs on these and other electronics. Plus now another 5 percent on new state taxes. I have been absorbing the costs so far, although the tariffs are greatly effecting new tower growth. Most companies are passing extra costs onto customers. Each radio has a $1,104 tariff cost, and each customer radio has a $35 extra tariff cost. What is not known or expressed in any news on communication equipment, such as these 4G or 5G equipment, is that China companies hold several hundred patents on LTE technology, so their innovations and inventions, have made them the number one manufacturers of such equipment. Other equipment comes from countries like some Baltic countries for the same reason. U.S. needs more engineers, not taxes. We cannot compete because we have fewer numbers of educated engineers, and thus patented software and electronics. The tariffs are self-inflicting... from food prices to your Internet costs. Reality. All the taxing in the world is not going to change the real issue of U.S. trade...education cost and adoption.” 

The administration’s line on trade is that it is protecting American jobs, but in this area, it’s having the opposite effect. As long as the trade policies are in place, expansion of the internet in rural areas will be slowed down, and many jobs in Nelson County that could emerge from it will never materialize.  

(By George Pipkin)