Rural Broadband and Precision Agriculture: A Frame Analysis of United States Federal Policy Outreach under the Biden Administration

Global food security requires sustainable and resource-efficient agricultural production. Precision agriculture may provide the tools needed to intensify agricultural production while prioritizing sustainability; however, there are barriers such as initial investments, knowledge gaps, and broadband access that may hinder adoption. Many rural areas in the United States lack the appropriate infrastructure for broadband access needed for precision agriculture, indicating government policies are needed to expand broadband access. The purpose of this qualitative research study was to develop a conceptualization of the current frames used by the Biden administration in communications related to rural broadband and precision agriculture. The methodological framework used was frame analysis. Data were initially analyzed inductively for overall gestalt and subsequently analyzed with abductive coding. Five overarching frames were identified during the data analysis process: broadband access and economic issues, garnering support for broadband expansion, urgency and equity surrounding broadband, expanding beyond the rural, and broadband infrastructure and the agricultural sector. The findings revealed broadband access associated with the Biden administration expanded beyond rural areas, recognizing that cities also face broadband access and affordability issues. There was a lack of discourse, however, surrounding rural broadband policy and precision agriculture, which may downplay its importance in agricultural sustainability.

Broadband for Telemedicine and Health Services

Given the prominence of rural communities in early 21st-century broadband initiatives, especially in telemedicine, this chapter considers issues for program evaluation in both the geographic and health policy contexts. Rural broadband and health needs are important challenges for public policy, as less populated regions lag in both infrastructure and health services. Some Federal Communications Commission projects have linked broadband capabilities and health services infrastructure. Electronic health records also are relevant to a discussion of the role of broadband networks. This chapter briefly reviews the language and intent of broadband-related health services regulations and federal agency programs and then presents detail on rural broadband availability and adoption. Finally, measurement and evaluation issues in this field are addressed, including the need to understand constraints in the rural context, meaningful use for target populations, issues for privacy and security, and the need for randomized trials rather than the anecdotal evidence that currently dominates in this area.

Distributed Base Station: A Concept System for Long-Range Broadband Wireless Access

We propose a concept system termed distributed base station (DBS) which enables distributed transmit beamforming at large carrier wavelengths to achieve significant range extension and/or increased downlink data rate, providing a low-cost infrastructure for applications such as rural broadband. We consider a frequency division duplexed (FDD) system using feedback from the receiver to achieve the required phase coherence. At a given range, N cooperating transmitters can achieve N2-fold increase in received power compared to that for a single transmitters, and feedback-based algorithms with near-ideal performance have been prototyped. In this paper, however, we identify and address key technical issues in translating such power gains into range extension via a DBS. First, to combat the drop in per-node SNR with extended range, we design a feedback-based adaptation strategy that is suitably robust to noise. Second, to utilize available system bandwidth, we extend narrowband adaptation algorithms to wideband channels through interpolation over OFDM subcarriers. Third, we observe that the feedback channel may become a bottleneck unless sophisticated distributed reception strategies are employed, but show that acceptable performance can still be obtained with standard uplink reception if channel time variations are slow enough. We quantify system performance compactly via outage capacity analyses.

Broadband Futures Forum: Regional and Rural Broadband Access

On 24 March 2021, TelSoc hosted the sixth Broadband Futures Forum, held online, with a focus on regional and rural broadband access. Mr Gavin Williams from NBN Co, the developer of Australia’s National Broadband Network (NBN), spoke about developments in Fixed Wireless and Satellite services and described NBN Co’s commitment to ongoing enhancement of broadband access in regional and rural Australia. A question-and-answer session followed the presentation in which Mr Williams fielded a variety of questions on broadband access and technological developments.

Technological Literacy and Interrupted Internet Access

As everyday practices are increasingly digitalised, many countries are prioritising broadband rollout. However, infrastructure provision under national policies has not been uniform. In comparison to urban populations, rural communities often have inferior broadband infrastructure and services and there are disparities in digital opportunities between rural and urban areas. A case study of twenty rural Australian internet users reveals that rural communities suffer from limited access, inconsistent and unreliable services, and rural broadband plans’ data restrictions and high prices, which we conceptualise as ‘interrupted access’. Rural internet experiences are subsequently shaped by the availability, speed, stability and affordability of connections. As a response, a form of ‘technological literacy’ is emerging through which rural consumers undertake technical and social manoeuvrings to self-address challenges from interrupted access and increase their opportunities for digital inclusion. Participants developed innovative local solutions, such as self-installed auxiliary hardware and mobile towers, which they used to improve mobile broadband coverage. Those unable to build such solutions displayed new types of knowledge encompassing broader contexts of connectivity (infrastructure, devices and plans) and re-structured rural life to accommodate internet use that is shaped by interrupted access. Growing community-level capacity and interest in broadband development suggests national policies could better reduce rural-urban inequities by supporting and empowering localised solutions. Without addressing the interrupted nature of rural connectivity to improve service quality and affordability, disparities in the digital opportunities available to rural and urban consumers will persist. KEYWORDS: Broadband infrastructure/services, digital divide, rural communities, digital inclusion

Rural Broadband Development in Canada’s Provinces: An Overview of Policy Approaches

Potential for private sector under-investment in rural broadband networks motivates a wide range of public sector initiatives around the world that aim to promote incentives to supply high-speed Internet access services in rural and remote communities. This paper provides an overview of policies and program design strategies that have shaped rural broadband development in Canada. The Canadian experience is particularly interesting in the context of broader debates about addressing the urban-rural digital divide because a combination of competition and targeted subsidies have helped achieve near universal access to some form of Internet connectivity.