[Senate Hearing 116-607]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 116-607
TRANSFORMING RURAL AMERICA:
A NEW ERA OF INNOVATION
=======================================================================
FIELD HEARING
before the
SUBCOMMITTEE ON COMMUNICATIONS, TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION AND THE INTERNET
of the
COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE,
SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
SEPTEMBER 5, 2019
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and
Transportation
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available online: http://www.govinfo.gov
______
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
52-749 PDF WASHINGTON : 2023
SENATE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION
ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
ROGER WICKER, Mississippi, Chairman
JOHN THUNE, South Dakota MARIA CANTWELL, Washington,
ROY BLUNT, Missouri Ranking
TED CRUZ, Texas AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota
DEB FISCHER, Nebraska RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, Connecticut
JERRY MORAN, Kansas BRIAN SCHATZ, Hawaii
DAN SULLIVAN, Alaska EDWARD MARKEY, Massachusetts
CORY GARDNER, Colorado TOM UDALL, New Mexico
MARSHA BLACKBURN, Tennessee GARY PETERS, Michigan
SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West Virginia TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin
MIKE LEE, Utah TAMMY DUCKWORTH, Illinois
RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin JON TESTER, Montana
TODD YOUNG, Indiana KYRSTEN SINEMA, Arizona
RICK SCOTT, Florida JACKY ROSEN, Nevada
John Keast, Staff Director
Crystal Tully, Deputy Staff Director
Steven Wall, General Counsel
Kim Lipsky, Democratic Staff Director
Chris Day, Democratic Deputy Staff Director
Renae Black, Senior Counsel
------
SUBCOMMITTEE ON COMMUNICATIONS, TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION AND THE INTERNET
JOHN THUNE, South Dakota, Chairman
ROY BLUNT, Missouri BRIAN SCHATZ, Hawaii, Ranking
TED CRUZ, Texas AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota
DEB FISCHER, Nebraska RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, Connecticut
JERRY MORAN, Kansas EDWARD MARKEY, Massachusetts
DAN SULLIVAN, Alaska TOM UDALL, New Mexico
CORY GARDNER, Colorado GARY PETERS, Michigan
MARSHA BLACKBURN, Tennessee TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin
SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West Virginia TAMMY DUCKWORTH, Illinois
MIKE LEE, Utah JON TESTER, Montana
RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin KYRSTEN SINEMA, Arizona
TODD YOUNG, Indiana JACKY ROSEN, Nevada
RICK SCOTT, Florida
C O N T E N T S
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Page
Hearing held on September 5, 2019................................ 1
Statement of Senator Thune....................................... 1
Statement of Senator Fischer..................................... 3
Witnesses
Hon. Brendan Carr, Commissioner, Federal Communications
Commission..................................................... 4
Prepared statement........................................... 6
Dr. Jose-Marie Griffiths, President, Dakota State University..... 10
Prepared statement........................................... 12
Deanna Larson, President, Avera eCARE............................ 18
Prepared statement........................................... 20
Mark Shlanta, Chief Executive Officer, SDN Communications........ 22
Prepared statement........................................... 23
Craig Snyder, Chief Executive Officer, VIKOR Teleconstruction.... 29
Prepared statement........................................... 31
Michael Adelaine, Vice President for Technology and Security,
South Dakota State University.................................. 33
Prepared statement........................................... 34
Appendix
Statement of Joseph RedCloud, Member, Oglala Sioux Tribe, Pine
Ridge Indian Reservation; Executive Director, Oceti Sakowin
Tribal Utility Authority; Acting Chairman, Oglala Sioux Tribe
Utilities Commission........................................... 53
TRANSFORMING RURAL AMERICA:
A NEW ERA OF INNOVATION
----------
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2019
U.S. Senate,
Subcommittee on Communications, Technology,
Innovation and the Internet,
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation,
Sioux Falls, SD.
The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 1:30 p.m.,
Southeast Technical Institute Auditorium, Sioux Falls, South
Dakota, Hon. John Thune, Chairman of the Subcommittee,
presiding.
Present: Senators Thune [presiding] and Fischer.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN THUNE,
U.S. SENATOR FROM SOUTH DAKOTA
Senator Thune. Good afternoon, and welcome to today's field
hearing. I want to say thank you to South East Technical
Institute for hosting this field hearing, and thanks to all of
you for coming. I have convened this hearing to both explore
the bill out of high-speed broadband services and to examine
the numerous benefits this broadband connectivity brings the
South Dakota communities.
After previously serving as the Chairman of the Senate
Commerce Committee at the beginning of this year, I became
Chairman of Senate Subcommittee on Communications, Technology,
Innovation and the Internet. While I've spent considerable time
on this issue as Chairman of the Full Committee given its
importance, the first subcommittee hearing I convened was on
the State of Rural Broadband in America. Today, I am excited to
discuss this important topic right here at home.
Over the years as I have worked on this issue, I have heard
from stakeholders who are on the ground building out
communications networks, deploying infrastructure, and bring to
market new technologies that are transforming our everyday
lives. I have also heard from community and tribal leaders,
small businesses, hospitals, schools, and everyday South
Dakotans experiencing the benefits of reliable broadband
connectivity. Unfortunately, access to the benefits of
broadband delivered services are often determined by where you
live, with rural areas trailing those who are more densely
populated areas.
The Federal Communications Commission plays an important
role in helping to build out rural broadband services through a
number of programs. I am very pleased that last December the
FCC, as part of efforts led by Commissioner Carr, unanimously
took action to enable the continued deployment of broadband in
rural communities, both here in South Dakota and across the
country, by ensuring adequate, predictable support to the high
cost program. In fact, just last month the FCC authorized over
$705 million in support of the South Dakota carriers serving
some of the most rural areas of our state. I am confident these
new dollars will be deployed in an efficient and effective
manner.
Rural telecommunications companies in South Dakota are
leaders in providing quality communication services to their
customers. They cover more than 76 percent of the geography of
the state, and more than three-quarters of their customers have
access to high-speed broadband services. Accurate broadband
maps are also essential for these programs to effectively
target truly underserved, or unserved areas, I should say. In
July, the Commerce Committee advanced the bill I sponsored with
Chairman Wicker called the Broadband Data Act to address the
challenges with the current broadband availability maps.
Additionally, the FCC recently took steps to update its
maps consistent with the goals of the Broadband Data Act. As
many of you know, having reliable connectivity and
infrastructure in place throughout all parts of the country
presents new opportunities beyond streaming your favorite TV
show without buffering. For many businesses, access to reliable
broadband services means tapping into markets that have been
before unreachable. It means new educational opportunities for
students and educators in rural areas and so much more.
The use of Precision Agriculture encompasses the use of
robotics, field sensors, remote monitoring, and the Internet of
things, and other technologies that enable farmers to manage
their fields, significantly increase their crop yields,
eliminate overlap in operations, and reduce inputs such as
seed, fertilizer, pesticides, water, and fuel.
Telehealth services help reduce costs for both patients and
healthcare providers. Mobile health applications allow patients
to track their overall health and telemedicine helps overcome
geographic barriers which are common in more rural areas. All
of these applications are the result of having a reliable
broadband network, and as we look ahead to next generation
fixed broadband and wireless services, it is critical we have
the workforce and proper infrastructure in place to bring
communities further into the 21st century. That is why it is
important to have forward-thinking individuals like Mayor Paul
TenHaken here in Sioux Falls, who sees the opportunities that
next generation services will bring. He has worked aggressively
to lower barriers and impediments to ensure that companies will
invest in Sioux Falls, and that type of mentality will help the
United States, including more rural areas, ultimately see the
full benefits of broadband capabilities today and in the
future.
It is encouraging that the FCC's recent broadband
deployment report shows the number of Americans lacking access
to a fixed broadband connection has continued to decline, but
this issue will remain a priority for me until we have closed
that gap entirely for everyone who wants access to broadband
and the benefits that it brings. As folks here in South Dakota
know, rural America has a lot to offer, and with the potential
for new and more efficient broadband infrastructure, there will
be even more meaningful opportunities for advancements in
health care, agriculture, financial services, education, and
economic development.
Today we are joined by a panel of expert witnesses to
discuss these benefits and the state of rural broadband
deployment. FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, who as I mentioned,
has had a very busy schedule meeting with a number of South
Dakotans over the past 48 hours. And I will let him describe
the amount of real estate that he has covered but he has
climbed towers in South Dakota--wind towers. So, he has been
high up in the sky, and this week he got a chance to go
underground a mile, 5,000 feet at the research facility out in
the Black Hills.
I appreciate very much the interest that he has shown in
closing the digital divide and his vision to make innovations
that come with these services a reality. And he has worked hard
to understand these issues from a South Dakota perspective, and
we are grateful for that. Dr. Griffiths and Dakota State
University are ensuring our advanced telecommunications
networks and the services they offer are protected as we face
new cyber challenges. And Ms. Deanna Larson, who is President
of Avera eCare, is helping advance telehealth services across
many areas in the Midwest.
Dr. Michael Adelaine together with South Dakota State
University is preparing young men and women for careers that
bring agriculture and emerging technologies together. And Mr.
Marl Shlanta, SDN Communications and Mr. Craig Snyder of VIKOR
Teleconstruction are working to deploy broadband services and
related infrastructure that will bring South Dakota the
benefits and the innovations that we will be talking about here
today. I am also delighted to be able to welcome my colleague
and neighbor from down South, Senator Deb Fischer who is here
today to hear from folks who work every day to bring these
services to the people of rural America. Rural Nebraska faces
many of the same challenges we have here in South Dakota when
deploying these services.
States like South Dakota and Nebraska can play a leading
role in the technological revolution and I am eager to continue
to do my part and to work with Senator Fischer and others as we
make that a reality. Senator Fischer has a leading role on the
Commerce Committee and her expertise comes from, I should say,
the infrastructure world and the transportation world, where
she was a leader on those issues in Nebraska and has continued
to do that in the U.S. Senate on the Commerce Committee, but
also very active, as I said, on these a technology issues and
Internet issues and the many policy matters that come in front
of our Committee so I am delighted to have her join us today,
and I look forward to our discussion.
I want to thank all of you who have come out for being
here, and I am going to turn to Commissioner Carr in just a
moment. Let him open this up. But I wanted to just acknowledge
again, Senator Fischer, and any remarks that you want to make?
STATEMENT OF HON. DEB FISCHER,
U.S. SENATOR FROM NEBRASKA
Senator Fischer. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good
afternoon everyone. It is a pleasure to be here in South
Dakota, our neighbors to the North, and share some information
from a distinguished panel that we have here today about the
importance of infrastructure.
Now, usually when people say infrastructure, at least in my
world, they think of roads and bridges, well, I think of
broadband as well. I live South of Murdo, South Dakota. I am in
the Sandhills in Cherry County. We have a cattle ranch. And
yes, you can turn on your cell phone and not have service. So,
we fully understand that if we are going to be competitive in
rural America, we need to have that infrastructure. And it is
not just roads and bridges, it is broadband that will keep our
communities growing, keep our young people at home and to grow
the strengths that we have in rural South Dakota and in rural
Nebraska.
Senator Thune has been a leader in all of these areas. It
is a pleasure to continue to work with him on the Commerce
Committee. He was a fabulous Chairman of the Committee in
advancing the needs that we see all across the United States
when it comes to these issues, and it is certainly a pleasure
to be here with him today at this field hearing here in Sioux
Falls.
So, thank you very much. Thank you, Senator.
Senator Thune. Thank you, Senator Fischer. And she does
live straight South of Murdo. So that is way South of Murdo.
[Laughter.]
Senator Thune. And I want you to know there are lots of
Jackrabbit, Coyotes, and other fans in the audience who are
probably some Huskers fans too, so.
[Laughter.]
Senator Thune. I am going to start and we'll just give our
panelists an opportunity to make some remarks on my left to
your right with our Commissioner. As I said, Commissioner Carr
has been in South Dakota now for a few days. He has been out
here a number of times in the past. It is always a pleasure to
welcome him to South Dakota. And I know many of you in this
room have helped roll out the welcome mat for him and made his
experience here a meaningful one. And I know that he has
learned a lot from his visit.
So, Commissioner Carr, it is always good to have you here.
You are welcome. Look forward to what you have to say.
STATEMENT OF HON. BRENDAN CARR, COMMISSIONER, FEDERAL
COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
Mr. Carr. Great, thank you. Thank you, Chairman Thune, for
the invitation to testify. It is great to be back with you in
South Dakota. I want to commend you and the Committee for
holding this field hearing on rural broadband and the new era
of innovation that it is bringing to rural communities. Your
strong leadership on rural broadband has expanded economic
opportunities for rural America. I also want to recognize and
extend my thanks to Senator Fischer. I had the privilege of
visiting Nebraska with Senator Fischer about a year ago and we
learned there how fast Internet connections are able to just
transform rural communities.
Spending time like this outside of D.C.--hearing directly
from community members impacted by our policies--is critical.
There is no substitute for seeing firsthand the challenges that
come with building broadband in some of the hardest-to-serve
parts of the country. And there is nothing that underscores the
importance of all of our efforts to solve that challenge--to
close the digital divide--than seeing how so many in rural
America are using a high-speed connection to innovate and
create economic opportunity--whether it is in agriculture, in
healthcare, or in education.
And I will deviate a little bit from my testimony to
highlight how this week it really underscored all of those
points. We started out on the Western part of the State in
Lead, South Dakota, an old 1800s gold mine that is now home to
some of the most cutting-edge innovative, Nobel prize-winning
science work. One reason is they have been able to run a fiber
connection a mile straight down this mine shaft to connect
those research labs. So, what was old back in the 1800s has
been able to be reinvigorated, creating massive jobs in that
part of the State thanks at least in part to a broadband
connection. As we moved further East, we spent some time down
in the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
As you know, it is vast, vast area along the border with
Nebraska, about the size of Rhode Island and Delaware combined,
with about 100 times fewer people. Immense challenges with
connecting that community in. I was there with Golden West and
they were showing us how they were replacing the old copper
lines, that they are on track now to connect nearly every
customer location in that vast area with high-speed fiber. And
we saw there the difference that it makes. We visited an IHS
hospital and we connected through a fiber linked back to Sioux
Falls to Avera eCARE, and they had some of the world's leading
specialists located there. With that broadband HD video
connection, they can video in and provide specialty care,
including mental health and behavioral health that simply would
be unavailable on the reservation without that broadband
connection.
Moving further East again, we stopped last night in
Midland, South Dakota. There was a family there, the
Hochstetlers. It is a third-generation farmer. His wife we met,
Misty, she works in a high-tech IT field. And before she got
broadband to her family home on the farm, she had to drive a
thousand miles a week to commute to her job. That was probably
going to be unsustainable in the long run, and now she can work
remotely right from the field, right from the home on the farm.
And her husband Brian took us up in one of those connected
combines.
And to really be a farmer today you have to understand not
just agriculture but really be a tech expert, a science expert,
and he showed us how these connected combines now when you get
the connectivity to the farm, they can make precise inch by
inch adjustments to seeing death pace of seeding and it is
resulting--generally got a 30 percent boost in productivity on
the farm. And so, it is a real-life example, I think, whether
it is a high-tech field or farming when you get a broadband
connection to your home the difference that it can make.
And so, for communities around the country, broadband is
giving families a chance to improve their lives, to innovate,
and expand their opportunities, and we have been engaged in
efforts with the FCC to help build on, expand. What we are
seeing is, as Chairman Thune noted, we have been opening up
millions of dollars for South Dakota and across the Great
Plains to build out Internet infrastructure and it is making a
difference.
The digital divide closed by about 20 percent last year
alone. Internet speeds are up about 40 percent in the country.
New small cell builds went from 13,000 in 2017 to over 60,000
last year. So, we are on track to lead the world in 5G now,
which is this next generation of connectivity. For us, the
finish line is not the time New York or San Francisco gets
next-gen connectivity, it is when every single community gets a
fair shot. And along the way it's creating jobs, and not just
when you get the connection, but building on this Internet
infrastructure, and Craig with VIKOR will tell us a bit about
that. How industry could add about 20,000 new jobs today, good-
paying, solidly middle-class jobs building out this
infrastructure of the future.
And I was up 100 feet or so today with some of Craig's crew
putting in a new wireless antenna above Mitchell, South Dakota
that is beaming almost 100 megabits per second service--right
in that area. And telehealth is another big opportunity that
comes with it. We mentioned the very eCare demonstration that I
saw. We are pursuing a pilot program at the FCC, the Connected
Care Pilot Program is looking to open up $100 million to
support, not just broadband to brick-and-mortar healthcare
facilities, but there is a shift in healthcare billing. It is
effectively the shift that we saw from Blockbuster video to
Netflix, where high quality care can now be delivered directly
to the home.
So, we are looking to build on our existing support
mechanisms by funding the connections needed directly to a
patient, whether it is their smartphone or tablet, so they do
not have to travel to a facility to get some of the qualifying
care. So those are some of the interesting things we are seeing
from Precision Agriculture to education, to healthcare where
broadband makes a difference and there is so much grit and
ingenuity and determination in rural communities. And when you
give them a fighting chance with a broadband connection, it is
so impressive what happens, and that is why we are going to
keep fighting in D.C. with the leadership of Senator Thune and
Senator Fischer to make sure that we get this fully across the
finish line and close the digital divide.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Carr follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Brendan Carr, Commissioner,
Federal Communications Commission
Thank you, Chairman Thune, for the invitation to testify. It is
great to be back with you in South Dakota. I want to commend you and
the Committee for holding this field hearing on rural broadband and the
new era of innovation it is enabling in communities across the country.
Your strong leadership on rural broadband issues has expanded economic
opportunities for rural America. I also want to recognize and extend my
thanks to Senator Fischer. I had the privilege of visiting Nebraska
with Senator Fischer and learning how fast Internet connections are
able to transform rural communities.
Spending time like this outside of D.C.--hearing directly from the
community members impacted by our policies--is critical. There is no
substitute for seeing firsthand the challenges that come with building
broadband in some of the hardest-to-serve parts of the country. And
there is nothing that underscores the importance of our efforts to
solve those challenges--to close the digital divide--than seeing how so
many in rural America are using a high-speed connection to innovate and
create economic opportunity--whether in agriculture, healthcare, or
education.
I saw this last spring in West Michigan's farm country. That's
where I met Jason. At 36 years old, Jason has worked on farms and
ranches for 20 years. He was born only a few miles from the crop supply
company where he now works. There's no paved road to his job. To get
there, he crisscrosses railroad tracks that run through town, and when
I visited, the drive took us past mounds of dry fertilizer and potash,
ready to be spread in the adjacent fields.
Jason's job is to collect silos worth of data: drone-based images
detailed enough to track even small changes to a single leaf; real-time
information about soil moisture and chemistry; LiDAR-based maps that
identify the micro-climates within each plot of land; and bales of
information gathered by sensors on his connected combines and sprayers.
Jason has the tech expertise that would be in high demand 2,000
miles away in Silicon Valley. But he's chosen to raise his family in
Moline. He told me he's never been more optimistic about the future of
farming.
The challenge, Jason explained, is getting all this data up into
the cloud where it can be analyzed and put to productive use. And that
means a high-speed connection, which Moline now has. A broadband
provider ran fiber along the railway bed--the same set of tracks that
helped Moline get its start in the 1870s when the Grand Rapids and
Indiana Railway passed through.
Now Jason can upload the gigabytes of data he collects and leverage
the horse-power of cloud-based artificial intelligence to put this
information to work.
The results are remarkable. Jason now sends real-time data to his
connected combines. The combines make inch-by-inch adjustments, to the
spacing, depth, and type of seeding, and they change the types and
amounts of fertilizer, too. My favorite of Jason's smart ag inventions?
He told me about an IoT device that traps pests, uploads their images,
and then uses AI to identify them and recommend a solution.
With these broadband-enabled, smart ag applications, Jason
estimates that farmers are seeing at least a 30 percent increase in
productivity and crop yields, not to mention a significant reduction in
the use of fertilizer, pesticides, and water.
Jason is a tech whiz. That is clear the second you meet him. And
he's like so many other bright minds across rural America that have
been able to innovate and realize their potential right in their
hometowns because of the opportunity that broadband gives them. We want
to close the digital divide so that even more Americans have that same
opportunity. But building broadband in rural areas is tough. It
requires grit, determination, and ingenuity. Thankfully, those are
qualities that are abundant in rural America.
You can see this skill set at work just south of here in
Chancellor, South Dakota. That's where I met Tyler--a scrappy
entrepreneur that runs a tech startup from his home. Tyler needed a
better broadband connection, so he created one himself. He asked an ISP
to run fiber to an old utility pole near his house. He then set up a
high-speed, fixed wireless link to bridge the gap between his home and
the fiber connection. Turns out, this setup worked well to bring
broadband to Tyler's house. He looked around and realized that he could
help bring more broadband to his neighbors around Chancellor by doing
similar work. So Tyler decided to go into the broadband business. He
now runs a small Wireless Internet Service Provider or WISP called Leap
Communications. Tyler told me that connecting rural South Dakota is not
easy work. And he showed me that you can't be afraid of heights to do
it.
Tyler guided me 180 feet above nearby Parker, on top of the town's
water tower. Up there, he showed me the antenna he uses to beam
broadband to his customers, including a farm located about nine miles
away. We visited that farm later in the day, and we spoke with Duane,
who runs the operation. Duane volunteered that he used to go to church
regularly to improve his connection. You see, before he met Tyler,
Duane did not have broadband at the farm. So he would go to the church
parking lot almost every day to use its Wi-Fi and upload the massive
data sets he collects on his connected tractors and combines. Duane was
quick to point out that he still goes to church, but with a broadband
connection provided by Tyler's company, he can now spend his time there
focused on a higher purpose.
I saw this same broadband-powered innovation on display with
Senator Fischer in rural Nebraska. On that visit, I spent time in a
feedlot in Milford, Nebraska with a startup called Quantified Ag that's
built what they call ``Fitbit for Cattle.'' It's a small, connected tag
that's attached to a cow's ear when they arrive at the feed lot. It
measures the cow's temperature, tracks its head and body movement, and
can pick up on issues that are tough for any human to spot. Every
morning, data from the cows are uploaded and analyzed by the company.
If the data show a cow that is outside the normal range of
measurements, a small red light starts flashing on the cow's ear tag.
The pen rider spots the light and can then move in for a more detailed
analysis. The preliminary results indicate that the technology is
helping to improve outcomes for the herd, saving time and money, and
reducing the use of antibiotics and other treatments.
For communities across the country, broadband is giving families a
chance to improve their lives, to innovate, and to expand their
economic opportunities. That is why the work of this Committee and the
FCC is so important. And that is why our top priority is closing the
digital divide--to ensure that every community in the country has a
fair shot at next-generation connectivity. Following the leadership of
Chairman Thune and his colleagues, the FCC has been taking bold action
to accelerate the buildout of broadband infrastructure in rural
America. I want to highlight a few of those steps today.
First, we have moved quickly to modernize and update our wireless
infrastructure rules. These are reforms that can flip the business case
for entire communities--creating the incentives for providers to build
out in areas that otherwise could get left behind. To start, we
identified more than a billion dollars in ``upfront fees'' and other
Federal regulatory charges that were needlessly increasing the cost and
slowing down the build out of small cells and other next-gen
infrastructure. We acted to rein in those excessive fees.
For another, we addressed the state and local review process for
new small cells, which are the building blocks for 5G. We did this by
building on commonsense reforms already enacted by elected officials in
their own communities--including by Mayor Paul TenHaken here in Sioux
Falls. Chairman Thune has been a strong leader on many of these issues,
including through his introduction of the STREAMLINE Small Cell
Deployment Act, which would further accelerate the buildout of new
wireless services.
Second, the FCC has reformed our rules on wireline service. We have
done so through a series of decisions that help support the buildout of
Internet infrastructure in areas where vast distances, tough terrain,
and sparse populations undermine the private sector business case to
build.
I want to highlight just one set of reforms today, which relates to
our Universal Service Program. The program's new way of awarding
funding gives broadband builders incentives to provide the most
efficient service to the most customers. If they figure out a way to
save the taxpayer money, they get to share in those gains. It's a win-
win, and it's the way our funding programs should work. We were pleased
to see that even more South Dakota broadband builders joined this new
market-based program. Offers we made in December could make available
an additional $18 million to provide fast Internet to more than 40,000
new locations in South Dakota. We also increased to $70 million per
year the amount of funding available to broadband builders in South
Dakota who already were a part of our market-based program. For those
builders who are still in our old support program, we encouraged them
to be more efficient, and as a result, they now have $20 million more
available to them. And finally, for the most difficult to serve areas,
we held an auction last year that will result in $5 million to build to
another 1,000 locations in South Dakota.
Just this morning, in fact, I visited a site in Mitchell, South
Dakota, where one provider is turning on a new, high-speed service that
will connect hundreds of previously unserved residents in Davison
County.
The FCC's reforms are already delivering results. The digital
divide narrowed by almost 20 percent last year alone. Internet speeds
across the country are up nearly 40 percent. More fiber was built out
last year than ever before. And investment in broadband networks is
back on the rise.
Indeed, the U.S. now has the largest 5G deployment in the world.
The private sector in the U.S. built out 5G in 14 communities last
year. Those U.S. builds were driven by a significant increase in small
cells--in fact, the number of small cells put up in the U.S. increased
from 13,000 in 2017 to more than 60,000 in 2018. And we are on a
trajectory to maintain this global leadership, with estimates
predicting a total of 200,000 small cells in the U.S. by year end 2019,
along with over 40 5G communities. And one carrier alone has recently
announced plans to build out 5G to 99 percent of the U.S. population.
All of that is good for consumers, but it's also good for workers.
All of this broadband construction has created job openings, many of
which remain unfilled. The industry tells me that it needs to hire
20,000 more tower climbers and telecom techs to build 5G. These are
good-paying jobs--the kind that you can raise a family on. They don't
even require a four-year degree. With only a few months of training,
the wireless infrastructure industry can provide 20,000 ladders up to
the middle class.
Some ladders are longer than others, and for some reason I agreed
to climb 2,000 feet with some of South Dakota's finest tower hands. I
was with Mike and Ammon of Vikor Teleconstruction. The tower was for
KDLT-TV in Rowena, one of the largest broadcast towers in the world.
Mike and Ammon were kind enough to pry the bureaucrat from the books
and show me what connecting the Dakotas really takes.
The truth is that Mike and Ammon are 5G workers. They switch out
and repair equipment so that wireless broadband can reach kids at
school, moms and dads can start home businesses, and cops and
firefighters can keep us safe. And we need more Mikes and Ammons to do
the job. So two months ago, I announced a 5G jobs initiative. Modeled
on a program developed by Aiken Technical College in South Carolina, it
looks to community colleges as a pipeline for these 5G jobs. In 12
weeks, someone with no training can learn the skills needed to land a
good-paying job in the tower industry.
We need to expand this model program to community colleges across
the country to ensure we have the skilled workforce in place to build
and maintain next-gen networks. I have been working towards that goal,
and that is why I am glad that Chairman Thune is holding this hearing
here at Southeast Tech. Alongside Chairman Thune, I have been working
with leadership here, and I am pleased that Southeast Tech is now
looking to add a tower tech program right here at their Sioux Falls
campus. Programs like this can help address our country's need for more
5G workers and close the skills gap.
More 5G workers will help us solve a related problem in rural
America: the doctor divide. With a growing physician shortage, it's
difficult to find specialists in many rural communities, and even basic
care is often out of reach.
Leaders here in South Dakota are using telehealth to meet this
challenge. I saw their work last year when I spent time with the
talented team at Avera eCare. This facility is home to world-leading
specialists, and thanks to a broadband connection, these healthcare
professionals are available to patients located throughout the state
and across the Plains. A small, rural clinic that may only have the
resources to keep a single person on staff can now pull up an entire
team of professionals at Avera eCare through a video connection, thus
bringing their expertise and specialization to bear in treating a
patient. This type telehealth offering is saving lives and driving down
the cost of care.
And it is part of new trend in healthcare. The provision of high-
quality care is no longer limited to the confines of connected, brick-
and-mortar facilities. Indeed, technology that's available only inside
a hospital or clinic does little to help communities or patients that
are long miles and many hours away from those facilities. So I am
pleased to be leading the FCC's effort to stand up a new $100 million
Connected Care Pilot Program. And I am glad to share an update today on
this FCC proceeding.
The idea for the Connected Care Pilot Program is simple. We are
seeing a shift in healthcare that's the equivalent of moving from
Blockbuster to Netflix. With an app right on your smartphone or tablet,
you can now access quality care wherever you are. I think the FCC
should support this new trend in care.
So I am pleased to report that my colleagues at the FCC voted just
two months ago to support my proposal, and we are now taking public
comment on the idea. We have proposed to support a limited number of
telehealth projects over a multi-year period with controls in place to
measure and verify the benefits, costs, and savings associated with
connected care. It could take the results we've already seen in the
limited trials to date and help replicate those results in communities
across the country. This will allow remote patient monitoring and
mobile health applications that can be accessed on smartphones and
tablets, to lower the burdens on patients, and the health care system
as a whole. I want to encourage the stakeholders here in South Dakota
and across the country to participate in the FCC's proceeding.
In closing, I want to thank you again, Chairman Thune, for holding
this important hearing, and for your leadership on rural broadband. I
welcome the chance to answer any questions.
Senator Thune. Thank you, Commissioner Carr. Next up is Dr.
Jose-Marie Griffiths, who as I said is the President of Dakota
State University and has brought vast experience in the world
of cyber and is doing some really wonderful things over there
at DSU. So, we are delighted to have you here, and invite you
to make some remarks.
STATEMENT OF DR. JOSE-MARIE GRIFFITHS, PRESIDENT, DAKOTA STATE
UNIVERSITY
Ms. Griffiths. Thank you, Senator Thune, Senator Fischer,
for the opportunity to testify today on this important topic.
In my longer written comments, I have some compelling real-life
stories that illustrate the power and importance of broadband
connectivity in education, healthcare, in the business
community, development, etc. But my spoken comments today will
focus on some stunning facts and figures that illustrate that
we are at a crisis point in this country. Admittedly, we are
making progress, but we have still a way to go.
A crippling digital divide exists between rural and urban
areas, and in some respects, it is growing. Rural areas that
have secure reliable broadband connectivity have indeed been
transformed by and are experiencing a new age of innovation.
However, generally rural areas have been cutoff from life in
the 21st century. Rural America that is experiencing the
benefits of broadband connectivity like Dakota State
University, and our host community of Madison and Lee County,
here in South Dakota, are making sure that we have four
components: reliable, fast, secure, adequate capacity broadband
Internet service; reliable, fast, secure, adequate capacity
cell phone service; technology services at costs we can
sustainably afford; and a highly skilled tech workforce.
Unfortunately, many rural communities do not have one or
more of these components, and instead of innovation and hopeful
futures, there are more and more being left behind attempting
to access 21st century electronic resources with 20th century
technology. A very important point here, this lack of
connectivity doesn't just impact those living in rural areas,
it impacts the economic success of the entire United States.
According to a study by Deloitte for Facebook, every day that
one person is not connected to the internet, America loses
$2.30 of potential economic activity, and that means if we
could solve the rural urban digital divide today, tomorrow we
could have the potential to add $83 million per day or $30
billion a year to the U.S. economy. According to a recent Pew
Charitable Trust Study, almost 60 percent of rural Americans
report that access to reliable, secure, high-speed Internet is
a problem in their communities.
In contrast, fewer than 20 percent of urban Americans
report this as an issue. Reliable, secure broadband has indeed
ushered in an area of innovation and transformation for those
who have access. For example, students who have Internet
connectivity at home are 10 percent more likely to earn a high
school diploma and college degree and will earn more than $2
million more over their lifetimes. 82 percent of U.S.
households have Internet access, but only 65 percent of rural
households with a computer can get high-speed Internet access.
For Native Americans living on reservations or tribal
lands, the percentage is even worse. Only 53 percent with a
computer have any way of getting Internet access. So, getting
broadband connectivity for that population would be a powerful
way to raise the existing unacceptable 65 percent high school
graduation rate and raise earned income. Advanced placement
classes give bright, motivated high school students better
preparation for college work and lowers their cost to degree.
Hundreds of AP courses are available online, but only 47
percent of rural school districts have no secondary schools
involved in those courses. In comparison, fewer than 3 percent
of urban districts and only 5 percent of suburban areas have no
students taking AP courses. Technology in the classroom
individualizes learning and engages students.
However, approximately 41 percent of schools, almost all in
rural areas representing 47 percent of U.S. K through 12
students, do not yet have connectivity at even the FCC's short-
term bandwidth goal of 100 megabits per second per 1,000
students. Educational technology makes it possible for one
teacher to teach multiple subjects at multiple levels, engaging
in motivating ways. Rural areas are facing a chronic shortage
of teachers, and technology deserts make it worse. It's no
wonder 39 percent of rural schools struggle to fill teaching
positions in every subject, and over 60 percent of high school
teachers in rural areas leave teaching after their first 3
years, an additional 20 percent after five.
An unemployed person who has Internet at home will be
employed several weeks faster than one who doesn't and will
earn more than $5,000 in additional income annually. Zip codes
in the bottom 10 percent of population density pay up to 37
percent more on average for residential wide broadband than
those in the top 10 percent of density. IT professionals in a
community transform that community. One IT person can support
multiple small businesses in addition to training employees to
promote digital adoption. At Dakota State, we've set a goal of
doubling our enrollment in our Beacon College of Computer and
Cyber Sciences to increase the number of tech professionals
available in rural areas.
We have also been strengthening the tech workforce
pipeline. This fall, we launched a new Computer and Cyber
Sciences Academy with the Sioux Falls School District that will
enable high school students to take college-level cyber courses
while still in high school, lowering the costs and shortening
the time it will take them to earn a tech degree. This is part
of another initiative that South Dakota Partnership for Student
Success, a program with multiple educational pathways to get
more people into the tech workforce.
Another new endeavor, the Madison Cyber Labs, is focused on
economic and workforce development by retaining our graduates
in South Dakota, along with business and population recruitment
to the State. Rural areas that can keep their talented high
school and college graduates keep intellectual capital and
leadership. Broadband connectivity opens doors for these young
adults to take well-paying, telecommuting jobs and launch
online entrepreneurial enterprises all from their home
communities, but without it, the rural brain drain will only
get worse. So broadband connectivity is critical to the United
States continuing to lead in this era of innovation.
As a country, we must decide whether we are going to make
it possible for all to have equal access to high speed Internet
or abandon rural users to slow smartphones, library parking
lots, and unlimited reliable home connections. In this ever
more competitive global market place, the United States needs
$83 million more of economic activity a day, and we must make
sure that every child in America, including those in rural
areas, has an education that well prepares them to lead this
country through this century and into the next. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Griffiths follows:]
Prepared Statement of Dr. Jose-Marie Griffiths, President,
Dakota State University
Good afternoon. I am Jose-Marie Griffiths, President of Dakota
State University in Madison, South Dakota.
Thank you, Senator Thune, and members of the Committee for the
opportunity to testify today on this important topic. In this field
hearing, I invite you to come with me as I take you on a field trip of
sorts, illustrations of the power and importance of broadband
connectivity.
A classroom full of students, eager to learn how to program secure
software for mobile devices, greet their professor as he rolls into the
room. The professor is a quadriplegic who uses an electric wheelchair,
and at this moment he is stranded in his home by a South Dakota
snowstorm his wheelchair can't get through. However, a Plains snowstorm
will not stop him from teaching his class. The professor confidently
makes his way to the front of the Dakota State University campus
classroom via a tall robot, nicknamed ``Cosmo'' after the professor's
favorite Seinfeld character. Miles away in his home office, the
professor uses his computer to move the iPad, positioned on the top of
the robotic stand, to see and warmly greet the students. He begins
teaching and the students intently listen, take notes, and periodically
ask questions. The professor sees their raised hands through his
computer screen at home, and immediately responds. He moves the robot
in closer to the student to clearly hear and understand the question,
then moves back to the front of the class so everyone can see and hear
his answer. An hour later, 30 students walk out of the room knowing how
to program certain security features into their software, a skill
desperately needed by businesses and organizations across the country.
The professor heads out of the classroom with the students via his
robot. The students carry on animated conversations with him as they
all make their way down the hall. The professor then heads to his
office for individual meetings with students during his scheduled
office hours.\1\
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\1\ SiouxFalls.Business. (2019, February 5). Robotic assistant
allows DSU professor to appear virtually on campus. Retrieved from
https://siouxfalls.business/robotic-assistant-allows-dsu-pro
fessor-to-appear-virtually-on-campus/
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A respiratory therapy student studies the numbers coming up on the
computer monitor, quickly reviewing and analyzing the data to choose a
treatment protocol. The instructor is sending multiple scenarios in
succession for the student to address. In one hour, the student is
confronted with more different cases than she would likely see in a
week or more working full-time in a hospital. The student's confidence
grows as she makes and corrects her mistakes with the instructor's
assistance. By the end of the hour she is well-prepared to assist any
patient experiencing the specific life-threatening condition that is
the topic of this class session.
A shrimp-farm engineer sits down in front of his computer and
brings up the morning report giving him the status of the thousands of
shrimp in the farm's water tanks. His business is located in a large
building in the middle of a South Dakota prairie. He makes some
adjustments to temperature and water flow for some of the tanks, then
turns his attention to the morning updates from his supply chain. He
notes that U.S. supply is running low on one of the types of shrimp his
company farms. He sends a message to his staff to switch over 5 of
their tanks to increase production of those shrimp, knowing the price
on them is rapidly rising with the shortage in other parts of the
industry.
A high school senior walks into her AP biology class. The teacher
hands her a virtual reality headset for the day's lesson. The entire
senior class in this very small rural high school has only 7 students.
It is one of the 50 percent of U.S. schools (or more than 70 percent of
South Dakota Schools) located in a rural community. However, so far
this school year these 7 students have visited the Great Hall at Ellis
Island, walked on the moon, experienced trench warfare during World War
I, and studied Van Gogh's ``Sunflower'' paintings in a museum in
Amsterdam--all from the comfort of their classroom. The student with
the headset begins exploring a 3-D virtual reality model of the heart
through her headset, turning, expanding, and shrinking the beating
object as she explores its various parts and sees how they function.
When she is done, the teacher hands her the standardized test for the
unit. The student scores 100 percent, and then has a conversation with
the teacher about the student's newly sparked interest in becoming a
cardiac surgeon.\2\
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\2\ Stanford Children's Hospital. (2019, March). The Stanford
Virtual Heart--Stanford Children's Health. Retrieved from https://
www.stanfordchildrens.org/en/innovation/virtual-reality
/stanford-virtual-heart
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A mother frantically calls 911, her choking toddler turning blue in
her arms. The operator, with one computer keystroke, sends to the mom's
phone a text with a series of photos showing how to do the Heimlich
maneuver on a child. With another few keystrokes the dispatcher sends
the woman's location to the closest first responder's GPS system. The
mother brings up the pictures on her phone, follows the directions, and
one of big brother's Lego pieces flies out of little sister's mouth.
The toddler coughs and begins to breathe again, as mom hugs her tight,
happy tears streaming down her face.\3\
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\3\ Government Technology Magazine. 911 Dispatchers Use New
Technologies to Quickly Locate Cellphone Callers. Retrieved from
https://www.govtech.com/dc/articles/911-Dispatchers-Use-
New-Technologies-to-Quickly-Locate-Cellphone-Callers.html
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These situations might seem to be very different. But they all
share one key dependency: they require robust secure reliable broadband
connectivity.
Without broadband, the classroom would be empty, the smart, eager
students left without knowledge and skills our communities need to be
safe, competitive, and thrive in this century.
The respiratory therapy student would be following someone around
the hospital, seeing a few cases a day, mostly watching rather than
doing--no one should let an untrained student make life-threatening
decisions on a real patient.
The shrimp farm would totally disappear from our prairie, taking
with it the $30 million impact it is expected to have on the local
South Dakota economy.\4\
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\4\ Askren, M. G., & Askren, M. G. (2019, January 4). Tru Shrimp to
build in Madison; $30 million impact expected. Retrieved from http://
www.dailyleaderextra.com/news/top_stories
/article_6309dd88-106e-11e9-aa23-ff243e4ded54.html
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The company would be forced to relocate to one of the U.S. coasts
to access industry supply chains and markets. The high school senior
would have to sit through a class far below her AP-level passion for
science, constrained by her less-interested classmates who require
their teacher to deliver a basic-level biology class.
And if the 911 system the mother called was one of the 911 systems
hacked and taken off line--which includes over 50 in the last couple of
years--that frantic mother would have been left alone and without the
help she needed to save her child's life. For example, not long ago the
911 system for the entire state of Washington crashed and was offline
for 6 hours, leaving over 4,000 911 calls unanswered with no
response.\5\ Presently, only 11 states and the District of Columbia
have cyber protection programs in place for their 911 systems.\6\ The
main reason for this? 911 systems report that they cannot find tech
professionals who have the broad technological expertise necessary to
regularly install new software patches, identify what parts of the
systems are vulnerable and plug the holes, or quickly restore systems
when they crash. And the vast majority of 911 systems have no backup
system available if the main system is hacked.
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\5\ Bernton, H., & Fields, A. (2018, December 28). 911 outage in
Washington and other states triggers federal, state investigations of
CenturyLink. Retrieved from https://www.seattle
times.com/seattle-news/911-outage-in-washington-and-other-states-
triggers-federal-investigation-of-centurylink/
\6\ Schuppe, J. (2018, April 3). Hackers have taken down dozens of
911 centers. Why is it so hard to stop them? Retrieved from https://
www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/hackers-have
-taken-down-dozens-911-centers-why-it-so-n862206
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Reliable, fast, secure, adequate capacity broadband connectivity
enables individuals and organizations ANYWHERE to participate in this
amazing Age of Innovation.
However, those of us who have been engaged over the years in the
development of our present ``Technology Age'' have long been concerned
about what has been called ``the digital divide.'' This is the phrase
to describe the state of the ``haves'' and ``have nots'' when it comes
to access to technology. Today, it especially refers to those who
have--or do not have--access to secure reliable broadband connectivity.
In the United State today, more than 60 million people cannot
effectively access the indispensable parts of American life that have
migrated online, like education, health care, business and financial
opportunities, and employment.\7\
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\7\ Tung, L. (2019, April 16). Microsoft: FCC massively overstating
how many Americans have broadband access. Retrieved from https://
www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-fcc-massively
-overstating-how-many-americans-have-broadband-access/
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Twenty and even ten years ago the digital divide primarily split on
finances--those who had money had access; those who did not were cut
off. While poverty still has an impact on access to connectivity, the
real digital divide in the U.S. is now between urban and rural areas.
Rural America that is experiencing the benefits of broadband
connectivity--like Dakota State University and our host community,
Madison and Lake County, here in South Dakota--are making sure we have
4 components:
(1) Reliable, fast, secure, adequate capacity broadband Internet
service,
(2) Reliable, fast, secure, adequate capacity cell phone service,
(3) Technology services at costs we can sustainably afford, and
(4) A highly skilled tech workforce.
Unfortunately, rural communities generally do not have one or more
of these components, and instead of innovation and hopeful futures,
they are more and more being left behind attempting to access 21st
century electronic resources with 20th century technology.
A very important point here: this lack of connectivity does not
just impact those living in rural areas, it impacts the economic
success of the entire United States. According to a 2016 study done by
Deloitte for Facebook, every day that one person is not connected to
the internet, America in 2016 lost $2.16 of potential economic
activity, which means that the rural/urban digital divide in 2016 cost
our country over $78 million a day in economic activity, or over $28
Billion in a year.\8\ \9\ In 2019 dollars, that amount is $2.30 a day.
This means if we could solve the rural/urban digital divide today,
tomorrow we have the potential to add $83 million a day to the U.S.
economy, or $30 Billion a year.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\8\ Deloitte. (October, 2016). The economic impact of disruptions
to Internet connectivity A report for Facebook. Retrieved from https://
www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global
/Documents/Technology-Media-Telecommunications/economic-impact-
disruptions-to-internet-con
nectivity-deloitte.pdf
\9\ Chike Aguh. (2018, February 13). How the 'digital divide' is
holding the U.S. economy back. Retrieved from https://venturebeat.com/
2018/02/10/how-the-digital-divide-is-holding-the-u-s-economy-back/
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The background behind this stunning statistic is this: according to
the U.S. Census Bureau, about 60 million people, or one in five
Americans, live in rural America.\10\ According to a recent Pew
Charitable Trust study, almost 60 percent of those rural Americans, or
6 out of every 10 people living in a rural area (36 million people),
report that access to high-speed Internet is a major or significant
problem in their communities. In contrast, less than 20 percent of
urban Americans report this as an issue.\11\ According to the FCC,
close to 40 percent of rural Americans--roughly 23 million people--lack
any access to broadband services, land-based or mobile.\12\
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\10\ Nasser, H. E. (2019, May 23). What is Rural America? Retrieved
from https://www.census
.gov/library/stories/2017/08/rural-america.html
\11\ For 24 percent of rural Americans, high-speed Internet is a
major problem. Retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/
2018/09/10/about-a-quarter-of-rural-americans-say-access-to-high-speed-
internet-is-a-major-problem/
\12\ (2018, February 5). 2018 Broadband Deployment Report.
Retrieved from https://www.fcc.gov/reports-research/reports/broadband-
progress-reports/2018-broadband-deployment-report
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It doesn't help that the new rural/urban digital divide is piggy-
backed on top of the poor/rich divide that has existed. Specifically,
according to a Wharton Business School study, in 2018 the rural poverty
rate is over 15 percent, contrasting with less than 13 percent in urban
areas.\13\
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\13\ Wharton Business Research. Rural America is Losing Young
People--Consequences and Solutions. Retrieved from https://
publicpolicy.wharton.upenn.edu/live/news/2393-rural-america-is-losing-
young-people-#_edn1
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And in rural areas, it doesn't make any difference how much money
you have--1 out of 5 people making less than $30,000 a year say they
can't get access to effective Internet service, but close to 1 out of 4
people making $75,000 a year or more ALSO say they can't get broadband
access. It's even worse for rural non-whites; 1 in 3 say they have no
way to connect to the Internet with any bandwidth that will support
more than straight text.
Those American living on Tribal lands are even more cut off. 41
percent of Americans living on Tribal lands (1.6 million people) lack
access to 25 Mbps/3 Mbps broadband and 68 percent living in rural areas
of Tribal lands (1.3 million people) have no access.
While the United States is generally the world leader in technology
access, when it comes to broadband social penetration, the U.S. rate of
subscribers per 100 inhabitants ranks Americans broadband penetration
behind Japan, Finland, and Estonia.\14\
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\14\ OECD. OECD broadband statistics update. Retrieved from https:/
/www.oecd.org
/internet/broadband/broadband-statistics-update.htm
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It is not at all an exaggeration to say that unless this country
can move rapidly to ensure that our rural communities have broadband
access, a large portion of Americans will no longer be able to
participate in the life of this country. The United States cannot
afford to just ``write off'' the 60 million people who live in rural
parts of the country, to cut them off from participation in the
culture, society, politics, and economic activity of the 21st century,
not only that of their own country but the entire world as well. This
is an unacceptable situation in a country founded on ``We, the people.
. .''
But already the impacts of not having connectivity is decimating
our rural communities. For example:
In education:
According to a comparative analysis of Bureau of Labor
Statistics and data from the Deloitte multinational
professional services network students are 10 percent more
likely to earn a high school diploma and college when connected
to the Internet at home and will earn over $2 million more over
their lifetimes.\15\
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\15\ U.S. Census Bureau. (2019, May 23). Rural and Lower-Income
Counties Lag Nation in Internet Subscription. Retrieved from https://
www.census.gov/library/stories/2018/12/rural
-and-lower-income-counties-lag-nation-internet-subscription.html
In a study published by the Carsey School of Public Policy
at the University of New Hampshire, researchers discovered 47.2
percent of rural districts have NO secondary students enrolled
in Advanced Placement (AP) courses. This 47 percent rural AP
class void compares to urban districts where less than 3
percent have no students in AP course, and in suburban areas
only 5 percent have no students in AP courses.\16\
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\16\ Gagnon, Douglas J. and Mattingly, Marybeth J. (2015 Winter).
Limited Access to AP Courses for Students in Smaller and More Isolated
Rural School Districts. Retrieved from https://scholars.unh.edu/cgi/
viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1234&context=car
sey&utm_campaign=elearningindustry.com&utm
In education we have the added issue of bandwidth and
simultaneous users. Not only do schools require reasonable
Internet speeds, they must also have enough bandwidth to
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accommodate large numbers of students online simultaneously.
Approximately 41 percent of schools do NOT yet meet the
FCC's short-term bandwidth goal of 100 Mbps per 1,000 students
and staff and thus are cut off from a vast number of
educational resources.\17\ Those schools represent 47 percent
of students in the United States, including over 6 million high
school students, almost exclusively in rural areas. This is one
reason why 5G development and implementation will be so
important, since one of 5G's improvements will be to
accommodate more simultaneous users.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\17\ COSN The Consortium for School Networking (November, 2018)
2018-2019 Infrastructure Survey. Retrieved from https://www.cosn.org/
Infrastructure
According to the Education Superhighway's 2018 State of the
States report, students who do not have access to the
educational applications and content available in connected
classrooms are at a significant disadvantage in trying to
compete in today's digital world. The sad fact is that rural
students without adequate connectivity don't even try for
education beyond high school. Part of this is impacted by the
fact that almost all colleges and universities application
processes are now online. Statistics show that a student living
in an urban area has a 10 to 15 percent higher chance of going
to college than a comparably achieving student living in a
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rural area.
For example, the Tyler Independent School District in Texas
had a fast connection, but without enough bandwidth. With
limited bandwidth, the speed alone wasn't adequate--it wasn't
until they upgraded to 1 MBps per student connection that they
were finally able to offer an online Early College High School,
where 300 students are taking classes for high school and
college credits simultaneously.\18\
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\18\ Real Clear Education. Making Broadband a Priority Makes
Education Better. Retrieved from https://www.realcleareducation.com/
articles/2017/10/06/making_broadband_a_priority
_makes_education_better_110211.html
According to a study done by Harvard Political Review,
across the country rural districts in 6 states received 50
percent less funding from the Federal government per poor pupil
than urban counties. Across the country, urban districts
received between 20 to 50 percent more funding than their rural
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counterparts.
Lack of technology also contributes to shortages of teachers
in rural areas, where more than 6 million high school students
are educated. It is already hard to persuade young teachers to
settle in rural areas because of the lack amenities of high
value to young adults, like social activities. Limited
technology access means a significant increased burden on
teacher expertise and preparation, which contributes to the
fact that rural teachers who work at the high school level
overwhelming leave rural schools in their first 3 years of
teaching. A science teacher in a rural school district might be
required to teach high school biology, chemistry, and physics.
Although related, these subjects require individual expertise
and preparation. A teacher able to access online lessons and
demonstrations is miles ahead of a teacher who has to plan
lessons and obtain materials and set up labs for all three
subjects simultaneously.
Even if students have access to broadband connectivity at
school, there is no question that having connectivity at home
has major impacts in students' ability to complete homework and
explore in greater depth areas of special interest to them.
Nationally, 78 percent of households have Internet access, but
households in rural counties trail that national average by 13
points, and by as much as 70 points in some rural counties.
In health care:
The FCC project ``Mapping Broadband Health in America,''
using health data from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's
County Health Rankings, has revealed that connected communities
versus digitally isolated communities have vastly different
pictures of health.
In communities where 60 percent of households lack access to
broadband and over 60 percent lack basic Internet connections
at home, obesity prevalence is 25 percent higher and diabetes
prevalence is 35 percent higher. All of the rural population
with poor connectivity has significantly higher rates of those
in poor health and preventable hospitalizations.
In areas without connectivity linking doctors, social
services, pharmacies, caregivers and others, health care is
significantly more expensive, requiring more people, and thus
greater salary expense, than in areas where connectivity
streamlines medical processes. For example, Towers Watson has
figured out that telemedicine could potentially deliver more
than $6 Billion a year in health care savings to U.S.
companies, most especially in rural areas. The Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) estimates that Electronic
Health Records and Remote Monitoring technology could alone
create over $700 billion in net savings over 15-25 years. More
importantly, these savings are paired with better outcomes for
patients. These numbers are only expected to increase with our
aging population.
By the way, we are proud of the fact that South Dakota,
thanks in part to the work of the Center for Health Information
Technology at Dakota State University, is the first state in
the country to have more than 85 percent of health care
providers using Electronic Health Records.
In business and job success:
As a recent Hudson Institute report emphasizes: ``Rural
broadband services are necessary in an economy where the
ability to complete a transaction electronically has become
indispensable.''
An unemployed person who has the Internet at home will be
employed seven weeks faster than one who does not and will earn
more than $5,000 in additional income annually
Community leaders finally recognize that they cannot attract
new businesses or slow declining populations if citizens don't
have a fast Internet connection. Some 19 million Americans have
no access to broadband internet. In these areas, it is
impossible to set up any company that requires connectivity to
be successful, which today, is almost every endeavor.
Shifting industry characteristics explains a large part of
migration. Farming, logging, and mining populate the rural
employment sector. Unfortunately, these rural area job sectors
relied on human capital, which has dramatically shifted to
automation, outsourcing, and foreign direct investment. The
evolution of agriculture and mining into today's technology
dominated economy has left rural inhabitants jobless. It has
also profoundly increased production per working person:
today's average American farmer provides food to about 155
people compared to 26 people in 1960, meaning that in 1960 food
demand provided jobs to close to 7 million people. Today, even
though the U.S. population has increased from 181 people in
1960 to approximately 329 million people in 2019, today we need
only 2 million farmers to feed our country. That is a loss of
over 5 million jobs, the vast majority in rural areas.
Rural broadband is often dependent on one provider, which
means there is no competition and rate setting can go as high
as the market can bear. This puts connectivity out of the
financial reach of more businesses and individuals.
IT professionals can command higher wages than many small
rural businesses can offer, so in-house or even local tech
support is limited. Tech skills among employees limit digital
adoption as well, depending on the access to training. New
technologies, such as the use of blockchain to manage the
supply chain of small farms, would be a boost for these
businesses' economic success, but they require workers who
understand and can implement these digital options, or the
ability to access online training, an impossibility without
broadband connectivity.
In community services:
Communities across the country are continuously facing
challenges that can affect their long-term stability and
relevance. Deciding where to focus community resources is a
daunting task. We need to communicate more clearly to
communities that broadband access is fundamental to their
existence.
It continues to be the case that in rural America thousands
of young people leave home and never return. That number has
soared since the 1990s.
Rural areas lack academic and economic opportunity compared
to metropolises. Because of this, a large portion of those
leaving rural areas are talented high school graduates. This
cause-effect relationship, this ``brain drain,'' robs rural
areas of intellectual capital. This further reduces the number
of educated people in a community able to effectively provide
community and business leadership to the area.
When young people leave an area, older adults are trapped in
the areas they have left. Rural populations governments lose
their local tax base. Subsequently, local governments must cut
spending. The budget cuts hurt infrastructure, community
centers, and most importantly public schools. As the population
drops, schools close and local businesses suffer. The cutbacks
drive more people to cities. It is a vicious cycle.
Low population deflates property values. Many elderly
American rely on their home equity as their savings. When
property values drop, they cannot afford to sell their homes to
move. The median age in rural communities has been rising. In
South Dakota, for example, from 2010 to 2017 the population of
those 65 years old and older grew from 14 percent of total
population to 16 percent, an increase of 25,000 people.
Geographical inequality traps rural Americans as evidenced
by job creation location, new business location, and employment
rate. For example, the rural poverty rate is 15.1 percent
contrasted against 12.9 percent for cities.
As a country we must decide whether we are going to make it
possible for ALL U.S. citizens to have equal access to high-speed
internet, or abandon rural users to slow smartphones, library parking
lots, and limited unreliable home connections. There is no question
that real high-speed Internet could change the lives and futures of the
1 in 5 Americans, 60 million people, who live in rural areas. Changing
their lives means the life of the entire United States would change for
the better as well. Can we really afford, in this ever more competitive
global marketplace, to throw away $130 million of economic activity a
day?
Fundamentally, it is a question of values. In the 1930s and 1940s,
the United States decided that everyone in this country was entitled to
reasonably comparable electricity and telephone service. There was
universal agreement that this was a requirement to ensure that every
American could fully participate in the life and economy of the
country. The Federal government created a system of loans and grants to
ensure that communities across the country, regardless of their
geography, had access to these key utilities. In addition, the FCC set
up a system to charge businesses and customers in urban areas slightly
more
The question facing us today is whether we still hold to that
American value, that every American citizen is entitled to have access
to the resources necessary to fully participate in the life and economy
of their country. It was a simple decision for our government in the
1930s and 1940s. It should be an easy decision for our government
today.
South Dakota is committed to the American values that built this
country. Consistent with that, we are energetically working to ensure
that our state becomes a cyber state, leading the Nation in equitable
high-speed Internet access for every one of our citizens.
However, we cannot do it on our own. It is going to take national
leadership and national resources to fix this national problem.
As I said earlier, rural America's tech void is primarily in four
areas, whether we are looking at education, health care, business and
industry, or community services. It is these areas where the FCC and
Congress must focus efforts to make improvements. Congress and the
FCC--supported by the entire country--must move rapidly to create
systems, funding, and expertise to provide effective, affordable,
broadband services equitably to both urban and rural Americans. We must
ensure that every single American has access to:
Reliable, robust, fast Internet service;
Reliable cell phone service;
Competitive, affordable technology services; and
A large skilled tech workforce.
In closing, I remind us all of some of the responsibility with
which we are entrusted to serve each American by serving all Americans,
as proclaimed at the beginning of the United States Constitution: ``We
the people . . .. establish justice, insure domestic tranquility . . .
promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to
ourselves and our posterity . . .''
A little dramatic? Perhaps. But cutting off 60 million people from
the life of this country would also be dramatic, in terrible ways, not
just for these individuals but for the whole country. We can do better.
We must. And we need our Federal government to lead the way.
Thank you.
Senator Thune. Thank you, Dr. Griffiths. And I would add
that the person who does our IT operations in offices in
Washington is a proud DSU grad. Next up is Deanna Larson, who
as I said is the President of Avera eCARE, and I think it goes
without saying that Avera has been a pioneer when it comes to
things you can do with telemedicine and telehealth, and to
treat people across our state and the region through
technology. They continue to make advances and lead the way.
So, thank you for being here and look forward to hearing from
you.
STATEMENT OF DEANNA LARSON, PRESIDENT, AVERA eCARE
Ms. Larson. Thank you, Senator Thune. And I want to thank
Senator Thune and Senator Fischer, and actually Chairman Carr
really for thousands of people, tens of thousands of people
whose lives have been impacted, their healthcare lives, their
family lives, lives of clinicians, by really having this
broadband available to them when a crisis occurs. And if you
could just hear one story of one life saved because there was a
connection from that facility that they were at to the facility
where I am here in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, it should make
you feel very good every day for the commitment that you've
made in making sure the broadband is a continued extension.
So, from all of those thousands of people, please hear a
heartfelt thank you. It is very important to them and it is
very important to us. Deep thank you. We often think about
broadband as an expansion in terms of needing to reach rural
homes and underserved areas by creating equal access on online
businesses, all of those things that are very important, you
have heard some things about already. In the realm of
healthcare, broadband is more than equal access. It really is a
matter of saving lives.
Twenty percent of Americans live and work in rural American
communities. Just like on the urban counterparts, they
experience cancer, heart disease, trauma, stroke, very severe
injuries that are always at the risk of being life-threatening.
In today's specialized health care systems, people either must
drive to get that special care miles and miles or forgo the
care they need. Staffing in this kind of care in rural
communities is just not a feasible opportunity.
First of all, there are not enough specialists to go
around, and second of all the population would not support
having those specialists available to them in their own
community. To bridge these gaps, Avera has developed a far-
reaching telemedicine program that is looked at as the world's
model. To our knowledge, there is no one else doing what we are
doing with this secure and interactive video capabilities that
are offered.
We started this about 25 years ago, and it began with just
a simple consult from Sioux Falls, South Dakota to Flandreau.
That pilot back in 1993 started the journey of understanding
what rural providers need and support, and how those living in
those communities should have equal access to specialty care.
Today at Avera eCARE, we not only do the medical specialty
clinic to clinic, but we also have Board physicians providing
care to emergency rooms, pharmacists, ICU care providers, long-
term care providers for those living in senior living
communities, behavioral health specialists, hospitalists,
school nursing, and correctional care.
All of those services going directly into the place where
the patient need it the most and bringing the specialist to
them immediately. It has become the most extensive telehealth
network. Right now, we serve more than 350 communities with
more than 650 different telemedicine locations, and that is
across 25 states. Our emergency program in which our local
teams can provide immediate access around the clock supports 15
percent of the Nation's critical access facilities, and I begin
by saying broadband is a matter of saving lives.
So, because medicine is so advanced, it is impossible for
one physician to be the ``do it all.'' There are many
situations in which the right intervention, such as a cardiac
provider, pulmonary provider in the right place and time can
make that life-saving difference. For example, in our ICU
program, around the clock computerized algorithms notifies
critical care intensivists of changes, and through those
notifications, they can support the local bedside and make any
necessary changes to either reduce length of stay in the
critical care unit or actually to make things get better
quicker because they notify the physician sooner. So, I think
you can all relate to that.
If you have an illness yourself, the earlier you go to the
doctor and get intervention, the more likely to have a quick
turnaround. eCARE pharmacy supports care locally by supporting
physicians in ordering medications and reducing medication
errors and advanced directives. The specialty and emergency
support in medically underserved areas is important to bring
up.
We do serve the Indian reservation communities, and in
supporting those disparities across those areas, we know that
we are supporting a cure for cancer, diabetes care, as well as
reducing risk of suicide. All of these services really allow
our patients to stay close to home--close to home for care
whenever that is possible, and we do that by providing an
extension of care to the local providers. That is important to
know.
Oftentimes we think about a business that is replacing a
local rural business, and what we are really doing is
augmenting that. We could not do that without that broadband.
We find that in more than 80 percent of the cases, when we have
telemedicine available to the local providers, we were able to
reduce transfers to tertiary care facilities. That is important
because tertiary facilities are often overloaded anyway, and
secondarily, anytime you can maintain care in a local
community, you can actually enhance your support to that local
economics. The practice of medicine is very demanding and the
repeating cadence of what goes on in a rural provider's life is
very important to consider.
Not only are they up all day and night working in clinic
and then going into the emergency, second of all they are
working in isolation. So all of that does relate to an overall
burnout, and we want to mention that training our medical
students here in South Dakota, bringing them into eCARE, of
course a look at what telehealth is maybe as a receiver of
telehealth and provider, is actually preparing them to go out
and have understanding of what it is like to have a telehealth
colleague, and hoping that we can recruit and retain those
positions in those rural communities.
I would just like to close with, without these broadband
services, none of this would be available, and all of these
individuals would not have had the opportunity for treatment.
For those reasons, I am really proud to give testimony today
and to support the expanded broadband and the funding that it
is providing.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Larson follows:]
Prepared Statement of Deanna Larson, CEO, Avera eCARE
Hello, I am Deanna Larson, CEO of Avera eCARE, based in Sioux
Falls, S.D.
We often think of broadband expansion in terms of needing to reach
rural homes in underserved areas, creating equal access for doing
online business and communication.
Yet in the realm of health care it's more than equal access--it's a
matter of saving lives.
Twenty percent of Americans live and work in rural communities.
Just like their urban counterparts, they experience cancer, heart
disease, stroke, severe injuries and so on. In today's specialized
health care system, people either must drive hundreds of miles, or
forego the care they need.
Staffing each rural community with a full array of specialists is
not feasible. There aren't enough specialists to go around, and each
rural area does not offer the population needed to support these
practices.
To bridge these gaps, Avera has developed a far-reaching
telemedicine program that is looked to as a model worldwide. To our
knowledge, no one else is doing what we're doing with the secure,
interactive video capabilities that exist.
Avera recently celebrated 25 years of telemedicine. It began with
consults with specialists in the City of Sioux Falls, with patients
located in the rural community of Flandreau, S.D.
This one pilot back in 1993 demonstrated how we could successfully
extend specialty care across the miles.
Today at Avera eCARE, we're not only doing this with medical
specialty visits, but also in emergency care, pharmacy, ICU, long-term
care and senior living communities, behavioral health, hospitalists,
school health, correctional health and more.
Avera eCARE has become the world's most extensive telehealth
network, reaching a total of 320 communities with 650 telemedicine
services being offered across the 22-state footprint.
Our Emergency program, in which local teams can access immediate,
around-the-clock support from emergency specialists, supports 15
percent of our Nation's critical access hospitals.
I began by saying this is a matter of saving lives.
Because medicine is so advanced, it's impossible for one person to
``do it all.'' There are many situations in which the right
interventions at the right time make all the difference.
For example:
Through eCARE ICU, around-the-clock monitoring is an extra
set of eyes to watch for negative trends. Timely intervention
can turn things around, whether that's at 2 in the afternoon or
2 in the morning.
Through eCARE Pharmacy, we prevent potentially deadly
medication errors or adverse drug events.
Through eCARE Emergency, we support local teams faced with
life-threatening events such as stroke, heart attack or trauma.
We're offering specialty and emergency support in medically
underserved areas, including Indian reservation communities, to
improve the disparities in access to vital health care
services. These disparities result in greater risk of death due
to cancer, diabetes and suicide.
Everyone is concerned about rising health care costs, and
telemedicine is a promising solution.
Health care costs mount when patients suffer complications and
escalation of illness that could have been prevented by timely
intervention earlier in the disease process.
With the right physicians in the right specialties available to the
patient virtually, we provide early intervention in a variety of
settings: hospitals, clinics, long-term care facilities, assisted
living communities and more. Addressing the urgent needs of patients
when they first become ill reduces overflow into the tertiary facility.
We allow patients to stay close to home for care whenever possible
by acting as an extension of their home care team.
We find that in over 80 percent of cases--when telemedicine is
available--an expensive transfer is not necessary. More than $3,800 is
saved for each patient transfer avoided.
We also know that recruitment and retention of medical
professionals, especially at rural sites, is an ongoing challenge for
maintaining quality health services and local economies.
The practice of medicine is demanding. The repeating cadence of
seeing patients all day, then doing rounds and being on call all night
results in loss of life balance and ultimately, burnout.
eCARE offers providers collegiality and the support of a team,
wherever they practice. We're providing a blueprint for how this can be
accomplished anywhere.
We believe telehealth is the future of medicine. That's why we're
training medical students--future physicians and advanced practice
providers--how to deliver care in this way.
Without broadband, we wouldn't have these services that now exist.
Without expanded broadband, we would leave some areas of our country
without the advantage of these potentially lifesaving, money-saving and
career-saving services.
For these reasons, I'm proud to give testimony today in support of
expanded broadband and the funding to provide it.
Senator Thune. Thank you very much, Deanna. Next up is Mr.
Mark Shlanta, who as I said earlier, is the CEO of SDN
Communications. And he has been that, I think, since 2000, is
that right?
Mr. Shlanta. Yes.
Senator Thune. And has led efforts to expand SDN's network
across South Dakota and into neighboring states, and really
increased both business and institutional access to broadband
connectivity and related services. So, we are glad to have him
here and look forward to hearing from you. Please proceed,
Mark.
STATEMENT OF MARK SHLANTA, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, SDN
COMMUNICATIONS
Mr. Shlanta. Chairman Thune, thank you for inviting us in
participating in today's hearing. And Senator Fischer and
Commissioner Carr, thank you for joining us as well. This year,
SDN Communications marks 30 years in business. The story of
South Dakota's access to rural broadband cannot be told without
SDN and its member companies investment in over 50,000 miles of
fiber facilities. That is enough to circle the Earth twice. I
would like to take a moment to describe how SDN and the 17
independent telephone companies that own SDN and our partners
are growing that fiber optic network dramatically as we move
forward.
In this hearing, I hope we will have time to further
discuss the needs for greater alignment and teamwork to drive
innovation in broadband applications. First, I would like to
remind everyone who our collective network serves, our
companies cover 80 percent of South Dakota's geography and a
third of the population. We are not talking about the
population centers, yet our companies aggressively combat the
digital divide. By the end of 2021, we will have fiber to the
home, farm, ranch, and business in over 93 percent of the
locations and the service areas of the independent phone
companies. Their investment over the past 5 years represents in
excess of over $500 million.
Further demonstrating their aggressive fiber deployment,
when Governor Kristi Noem wanted her $5 million connect to
South Dakota grants, her Administration quickly realized our
companies have or will have fiber to the most remote farms and
ranches in the State. Instead, her team asked our companies to
help provide broadband in relatively populated areas, North of
Pierre, around Watertown, and even here to Minnehaha County. In
fact, the stories from those unserved areas in Minnehaha County
and Hughes Counties might be the most impactful. At the
Northern edge of Minnehaha County, a large dairy farm had
struggled to implement technology into its operations because
of its lack of broadband services.
Additionally, I have been told the stories of rural
families in Minnehaha County must take their cell phones and
other technology into relatives homes in Garretson in order to
have access to broadband and do necessary updates to their
devices. In Hughes County, roughly 700 homes will now have
fiber available to them. Six of the eight Connect South Dakota
Grants Governor Kristi Noem's Administration issued went to our
companies to build in those unserved and underserved service
areas.
VICKOR Communications received the largest grant. Fifty-
four percent of the Governor's $5 million, Cheyenne River
Tribal Telephone Authority received another $475,000 to bring
broadband to unserved Timberlake. Mitchell Telecom is plowing
fiber to serve housing developments around Mitchell with a
grant to $441,000 but RC Communications and ITC are serving
parts of Cottington County and Alliance Communications is
serving Minnehaha. Our companies have also been aggressive in
applying for Federal Reconnect grants. Valley Communications
working along Highway 14, SDN Communications in the Black
Hills, and Premier Communications serving parts of Union
County. We look forward to hearing more about those grants.
I recently listened to National experts speak at the South
Dakota Telecommunication Association's annual meeting. Speakers
who look far into the future warn that there is a disconnect
between the predictions of future broadband needs and what can
be delivered across various Wireless Services. These speakers
say fixed wireless, 5G cellular, satellite, they all play a
role, but they will not fully meet the demand of all broadband
services. The speaker's position was that the only way to
future-proof broadband services is a fiber connection to every
home, farm, ranch, and business here in South Dakota and across
the Nation. Fiber-based networks are the solution to a
comprehensive broadband infrastructure needed to support the
innovations we seek in the fields of telehealth, e-commerce,
online education, and Precision Agriculture.
Again, today I hope we can spend some time reviewing, at
some level, six key elements that I feel will continue to drive
broadband innovation forward. These elements are last mile
networks, having the right policies that encourage broadband
buildup in unserved rural and urban markets. Middle mile
networks. Development and coordination are needed to provide
clear paths for the data and applications that can be a be
enabled with the last mile investments. In my opinion, it would
be a shame to see last-mile investments slowed by poor middle
mile policy. The Rural Development Opportunity Fund may become
a vehicle to extend middle mile networks into areas where last
mile networks are desperately needed.
I would like to see progressive data targets as we look
into the future, 2020, 2025, and beyond. I think we also need
to continue to focus on making sure we have good data as we
look at the areas that were adequate broadband exists and does
not exist. Having that good data will be key in developing
future policy, certainly coordination among agencies, and the
removal of other barriers associated with broadband development
will help us all. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Shlanta follows:]
Prepared Statement of Mark Shlanta, Chief Executive Officer, South
Dakota Network, LLC d/b/a/SDN Communications
Introduction
Chairman Thune, Senator Fischer and panelists thank you for the
opportunity to provide written and oral testimony on importance of
rural broadband and its impacts on the daily lives of the millions of
people touched by the services it enables.
I am Mark Shlanta, Chief Executive Officer of SDN Communications
(SDN) in Sioux Falls, SD. SDN is regional fiber optic network owned by
most the Independent Telecommunication Companies in South Dakota. Our
owner Members total seventeen and we work closely with at least another
two dozen Independent Telecommunications Companies in Minnesota, Iowa,
and Nebraska. We are part of Indatel which is a national network
consisting of nearly thirty statewide and regional fiber optic networks
like SDN.
Since we are seated in South Dakota, I am going to provide a lay of
the broadband landscape in our state. Our Members are seeing broadband
throughput increase. One of our Members reported a doubling of
throughput from 2017 to 2019 and expects another doubling by the end of
2021. If this evolves, each month the average broadband connected
household in South Dakota will consume over 500GB of data by that time.
This growth is also being compounded by the advancement of fiber
optically connected households. In 2017, the rural broadband providers
in South Dakota touched roughly 65 percent of the occupied homes and
living locations in their markets with fiber optic cables. As we
approach the end of 2019 the industry is closing in 80 percent of the
households and by the end of 2021, they anticipate that over 90 percent
of the household in their markets will be serviced by fiber optic
cables. This is an increase of nearly 50 percent in four short years.
This growth is supported on three fronts: (1) the private
investments made by companies to increase their reach in fulfillment of
their mission to their communities, (2) the ongoing support from
various programs like the Universal Service Fund (USF), which helps
offset the high-cost of deploying and maintaining networks in rural
areas, (3) grant and loan programs like USDA's ReConnect and Governor's
Noem's broadband plan which provide the capital necessary to enable un/
underserved portions of the state that have been neglected by others to
obtain powerful broadband connections.
As we see the number of households expand and the throughput from
each household increases, we are seeing demands placed on the middle-
mile networks of the statewide and regional carriers like SDN. SDN and
its peers around the country play in important role in the delivery of
broadband services to rural communities and connecting multi-location
businesses across the country. We carry voice, video and data traffic
from the smallest communities in our respective states to the largest
peering points in the country supporting e-commerce, tele-health, e-
banking and community banking, precision and value-added agriculture
and online education. We also supply and connect the ``wires'' for many
of the wireless carriers in both rural and urban markets. Many will
talk about the benefits and applications of 5G wireless networks, but
none of these benefits could be attained without the robust ``6G''
fiber networks supplying the backhaul bandwidth.
As I was preparing my testimony, I was reminded of the opening
sentence in Patrick Lencioni's book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.
The sentence reads; ``Not finance. Not strategy. Not technology. It is
teamwork that remains the ultimate competitive advantage, both because
it is so powerful and so rare.'' The portion of the sentence that
reads, ``It is teamwork that remains the ultimate competitive
advantage,'' is the portion that strikes me for its applicability to
this discussion.
SDN Communications, its rural broadband Members and partners work
as team delivering the lighting fast connections that support the
demands of households and businesses alike. Today's hearing and
conversations examine how this teamwork enable the applications that
impact lives of those who live in rural communities and to participate
more fully in the global economy. My comments will center on the
importance of the middle mile fiber networks and the carriers that
provide those networks. I will also touch on the need to better align,
network operators, with solid planning data and comprehensive forward
looking policies.
Statewide, Regional, and Middle-Mile Networks--What Are They and Why
Are They Needed
SDN is regional fiber optic network headquartered in South Dakota
with network connecting Members and partners from the Minnesota/
Wisconsin border west into Wyoming with extensions from there
stretching into Colorado and Montana and as we extend from east to west
our network extends into Nebraska, Iowa and North Dakota. Originally,
SDN was assembled to support its Members by centralizing various
services that were needed by the telephone companies. Services like
centralized equal access for long distance services, SS7 for call
features, the consolidation of cable television headends and the
development of broadband and Internet services are part of our mission.
As we needed to extend our reach to gain access to services and other
partner companies sought our services, we began to weave a regional
network extending throughout the state and into the neighboring states.
Networks like SDN help bridge the distance between the independent
operating companies and provide a pathway for scale to create new and
innovative services and return value to the customers and companies we
support. These network works are needed to deliver the services that
broadband network enable to consumers, government and business leaders
have come to expect as they lead their lives.
SDN, its Members and partners supply connectivity for nearly a
thousand macro and small cell sites. This is an example of our 6G fiber
optic based networks supporting today's 4G and tomorrow's 5G wireless
services. We connect hundreds of schools and locations servicing local,
county, state, tribal and Federal government locations from the game,
fish and parks check points to the world class data centers monitoring
climate, crops and weather around the world. People from Baltimore to
Zell and from Ardmore to Walla Walla are supported by the powerful
fiber optic networks of middle mile carriers. People are impacted by
middle mile carriers every day in the things they do and information
they need.
Speakers today, will discuss in greater detail how they rely on
broadband connections to support their latest innovations in tele-
health, precision agriculture and online education. Simply understand
we are all part of team that is needed to deliver and grow to maintain
delivery of these services now seen as essential in the daily lives of
so many.
Tele-health delivery can reduce the cost of health care delivery
through more complete follow up visits and reduce the stress applied to
families who no longer need to support multi-hour round trip visits to
see a doctor. These visits can be completed in the communities with
connected clinics and hospitals.
Local commerce is supported when the community banks of a region
are able to maintain branches in smaller communities with kiosk-based
tellers and remote IT and cybersecurity services.
Similar support is supplied to schools and governments as
applications that were once only available at large government offices
are closer to the citizens using broadband connections for online
applications and access to information.
Various commodities are bought, sold and processed with the support
of rural broadband networks. Rural broadband services can reduce the
cost to markets and increase yields and prices for local producers.
Agricultural products make up the largest portion of our country's
exports and rural broadband service plays a role in our global
competitiveness.
Rural broadband services extend services into remote areas of our
country. In South Dakota, SDN and its Members are extending urban
services into some of the most remote ranches and communities in the
lower forty-eight. Working as team brings these services into play more
cost effectively and quickly for the benefit of businesses, consumers
and citizens. Middle mile networks play a critical role in these
deployments by ensuring that necessary bandwidth is made available from
the content source all the way to the end point. One can think of
middle networks as the offensive line of a football team. They can
provide a clear path for the critical payloads to move allowing the
team to succeed.
Progressive Data Speeds Are Needed
The current broadband definition of 25Mbps down and 3Mbps up has
been a significant move forward from the previous 10/1 and 4/1
definitions. As a nation, however, we already need to be thinking about
whether the 25/3 standard is truly sufficient for the advancements in
networking and applications for our broadband economy to continue to
flourish with innovation.
Recently, I was at a conference where a precision ag speaker
discussed speeds of 100Mbps up and 100Mbps down are needed by
agricultural producers to move the data that is being acquired by
today's precision ag tools and for the producers to be able to act upon
the results within 24 hours of the data collection.
At SDN, we are seeing the throughputs on our networks double in two
years. It is for others to make the call on how to set exact speed
targets, but such growth signals that our investments in broadband
infrastructure need to have a pathway forward to meet the anticipated
demands of the applications.
The current 25/3 definition was first proposed in 2015, and a
refresh of target speeds will be needed soon. Especially given that we
are building networks intended to last for years, if not decades, I
encourage both the FCC and Congress to examine and adopt new standards
now, thinking about what kinds of speeds will be needed over the lives
of these networks. As a veteran of the rural broadband industry, my
suggested minimums for a robust broadband economy prepared for
innovations are:
2020 50Mbps up/50Mbps down
2025 100 Mbps up/100Mbps down
2030 200 Mbps up/200Mpbs down
Households may have demands for more bandwidth than even these
minimums deliver, but to support continued advancements speed targets
should be set, and from those minimums the plans for forward looking
policy can be advanced.
The Need for Good Data to Make Good Policy Decisions
There is no question that good decisions about infrastructure
policy generally and universal service policy more specifically must be
driven by good data. ``False positives''--claims of voice and broadband
services where none actually exist--could leave rural consumers and
businesses stranded without access in defiance of the national mandate
for universal service. Meanwhile, ``false negatives''--areas that are
perceived as unserved but actually have voice and broadband services
available--run the risk of wasting scarce resources from important
governmental programs on redundant networks.
At this point, nearly every governmental communications program has
some mechanism intended to ensure that funds are directed toward where
they are needed most to build and sustain advanced networks. Problems
arise, however, when the data driving these programs are incomplete or
incorrect--and, unfortunately, it's not easy to discern when that is
the case on the face of existing databases and maps.
The FCC, for example, gathers data on voice and broadband service
availability through its Form 477. There has certainly been a lot of
concern--especially from among members of this Committee--about whether
the Form 477 data accurately capture coverage in the mobile context.
This is an understandable focus given the efforts to implement the
Mobility Fund and the disappointment of having no cell phone coverage
in an area where provider maps say one should.
But what is often lost is that these concerns are just as prevalent
in the context of fixed voice and broadband services, too. On Form 477,
a census block is reported as served simply because one location in
that block could be served by a provider at an advertised speed within
10 business days. In other words, there may be no service actually
installed in a census block, or the speeds actually delivered in that
block may not be equal to what is advertised--and, yet, that area can
show as served. Even more troubling in rural census blocks that can
stretch large distances, the theoretical delivery of service to one
customer in a census block could result in the denial of funding for
voice and broadband to another customer located miles away, yet still
in the same census block, who literally has no choices for such
services.
At this point, the reaction is often to say that we need to get
more granular in the data--and this is correct as a partial response.
But getting more granular alone is not going to solve the problem or
potential for ``false positives'' specifically. In particular, no one
is vetting in advance whether data submitted on Form 477 are accurate.
Providers submit the data based upon what they advertise. Thus, whether
by accident or on purpose, Form 477 data can contain errors that in
turn lead to support being denied in areas where it is in fact very
much needed.
Fortunately, there is a way to care for the fact that broadband
coverage maps are always at risk of being inaccurate even if they get
more granular. For years, agencies like the FCC and the Rural Utilities
Service (RUS) under the U.S. Department of Agriculture have developed
and used ``challenge processes'' that treat service coverage
information like Form 477 data as informative but not dispositive.
Mapping databases are used as a ``baseline'' for determining where
support should or should not go, but a ``challenge process'' is then
used to confirm whether the maps are correct and to adjust them when
they are not.
Certainly, the recent experiences with the Mobility Fund show the
value and wisdom of a challenge process. Without such a process, the
concerns that have been raised about overstated mobile coverage would
never have been identified. At the same time then, it was disappointing
and somewhat shocking to see the FCC now considering moving away from
challenge processes in the fixed voice and broadband context.
Specifically, the FCC has proposed to eliminate the prior existing
challenge process to validate Form 477 data in the context of fixed USF
support, and instead to default to the Form 477 data effectively as
gospel.
If the Mobility Fund experience provides any lessons, however, it
is that a meaningful challenge process is a necessity in determining
where funding should go or be denied. We therefore are hopeful that the
FCC will reverse course on its suggestion to eliminate a challenge
process in the context of distributing USF to support fixed networks,
and that it will return to a data-driven process that ensure rural
consumers are not left on the wrong side of a digital divide due to
inaccurate information. This is more work, to be sure, for all
involved--but the stakes of getting it wrong are too great to leave to
chance.
Coordination among Agencies is Critical to Achieve a Shared Vision of
Sustained Universal Access
One very successful formula for the deployment and ongoing
operation of communications networks in rural America comes in the
combination of: (1) RUS loans that finance upfront network construction
(with payback) in rural areas where there are often few financing
options; and (2) the USF programs that help, as noted above, to support
ongoing operations and ensure the affordability of rates on networks
once built.
RUS has long played an important role in financing rural broadband
construction. Since the 1950s, locally based rural telecommunications
providers have obtained financing from RUS or its predecessor agency
under the U.S. Department of Agriculture. RUS telecommunications
lending has helped enable and unleash billions of dollars in private
capital investment in rural communications infrastructure.
It is important that the complementary roles of RUS upfront
financing and USF ongoing support continue for last mile rural
broadband carriers. In particular, we can make smart and effective use
of Federal resources by reaffirming and codifying the complementary
nature of coordinated RUS and FCC programs, rather than allowing these
programs and the resulting networks to be pitted against one another in
a manner that undermines the sustainability of the networks and the
integrity of the programs themselves.
Indeed, with the 2018 Farm Bill and the newly minted ReConnect
Program, RUS will take on a larger financing role for rural broadband
deployment through grants and loan/grant combination packages. These
new and updated programs are much-welcomed and important tools in the
Federal government's toolkit to eliminate the digital divide. But it
will be critical to promote the efficient and effective use of limited
Federal resources by ensuring that a new network built by one provider
leveraging Federal programs will not compete with and undermine the
sustainability of an existing network operated by another provider that
leveraged other Federal resources and is already meeting Federal
broadband standards. Both the FCC and the RUS should therefore
coordinate closely in administering their programs, and it is essential
to avoid the prospect for two dueling federally supported networks
built in a rural area that cannot sustain either one without the
assistance of Federal programs.
Improving the Business Case for Rural Broadband through Streamlined
Permitting and Removal of Other Barriers to Deployment
Given the deeply rural, sparsely populated nature of the area
served by rural broadband providers, SDN, its Members, partners and
peers operate across large sections of Federal land, including land
owned or managed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Land
Management, USDA's National Forests, Department of Interior's National
Parks, and Army Corps of Engineers. Barriers to broadband deployment
such as disparate applications, fees, and reviews across Federal and
state landowning agencies can slow down or stymie deployment of
networks within and across such areas, and such barriers must be
addressed as part of any holistic plan to promote and sustain
infrastructure investment.
Efforts to standardize Federal permitting processes and implement
``shot clocks'' for securing prompt approvals are important tools in
promoting broadband investment--while they may not make the business
case in and of themselves, efforts to eliminate regulatory barriers and
streamline permitting can help to improve the business case and
expedite the construction of networks, which is an important
consideration in particular in places like South Dakota where the
``build season'' is relatively short due to environmental factors,
namely winter. Streamlining permitting and other steps to remove
barriers to deployment will also be critical in making sure USF dollars
go further--that such resources are spent on building and operating
networks rather than paying outrageous fees for mere feet of railroad
crossings or spending hours and days to secure permits from a
government agency.
Our industry appreciates this Committee's bipartisan efforts to
reduce barriers to deployment of communications networks. Important
measures like the MOBILE NOW Act have laid out a roadmap for important
steps forward like the development of common form applications (which
are particularly useful for carriers like SDN, its Members, partners
and peers that work with multiple landowning agencies) and deadlines
for agency action. Building upon such provisions through additional
efforts here in Congress and recommendations and model provisions such
as those developed by the FCC's Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee
can help in realizing the benefits of broadband in rural areas.
Conclusion
The quickest path to having a country fully built out with
broadband networks that are scalable into the future is to align the
various elements needed for success. In my opinion, these are:
Last mile networks--ensure policy that encourages robust,
``future-proof'' broadband buildout in rural and urban markets
and incents investment when incumbents abandon markets.
Middle mile networks--development and coordination are
needed to provide clear paths for the data and applications
that can be enabled with last mile investments. It would be a
shame to see last mile networks slowed by poor middle mile
policy and management.
Progressive data speed targets--advances in networking are
continuing and we are seeing the monthly throughput of networks
increasing. We will need to focus on what the broadband of
2020, 2025 and beyond looks like as we make investments and
policy decisions for the future.
Good data--understanding where adequate broadband exists and
does not exist will be a key to developing the quickest path to
a built out broadband economy.
Coordination among agencies--programs, grants and loans that
complement the common goal of a fully built out broadband
economy will generate the results sought by policy makers and
expected by citizens.
Removal of other barriers--I was thrilled and a little
disappointed when the President issued an Executive Order in
January of 2018 that called for the streamlining and expediting
of requests to locate broadband facilities in rural America.
Thrilled that the lack of coordination that can slow progress
was recognized and disappointed that it had not been addressed
earlier.
Again, Lencioni describes teamwork as the ultimate competitive
advantage and as powerful and rare. The innovation we seek in our
broadband economy transforming tele-health, precision agriculture,
commerce and education will be achieved. I want to think how much
faster these innovations could develop with the proper alignment
(teamwork) of carriers, policy, data and forward-looking broadband
speed goals.
Network Maps of SDN Communications
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Regional network extending from the Minnesota/Wisconsin border west
to Wyoming.
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
A broader regional view of SDN Communications network demonstrating
its reach into other regional and national networks.
Indatel Network Map
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Indatel is a national network assembled through the
interconnection, partnership and teamwork of the regional and statewide
fiber optics owned by Independent Telecommunication Providers.
Senator Thune. Thank you, Mr. Shlanta. Next up is Mr. Craig
Schnyder, Chief Executive Officer of VIKOR Teleconstruction.
And he is the founder and CEO of Sioux Falls Tower &
Communications, which is now known as VIKOR, and the company
celebrated its 30th anniversary this April. And I had an
opportunity to be out there as did the Commissioner, and now
has been a leading provider of wireless infrastructure
providing services in more than 30 states across the United
States. So, we are delighted to have you here. Please proceed,
Mr. Snyder.
STATEMENT OF CRAIG SNYDER, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, VIKOR
TELECONSTRUCTION
Mr. Snyder. Thank you, Senator Thune, for inviting me to
speak today, and Senator Fischer for being a part of this, and
for Commissioner Carr, who somebody hashtagged him today as
#CarrWorks. If you follow Commissioner Carr on Twitter,
LinkedIn, or Instagram, you know, he is all over the place. He
is up on towers and he is underground now. I think he has got a
couple of miles of spread between the farthest place
underground to 2,000 feet above, and so we really appreciate
his leadership on the Commission.
VIKOR Teleconstruction, formerly Sioux Falls Tower, you may
not know us, but we are the guys who build the vertical
infrastructure, Mark builds the horizontal infrastructure. We
build the vertical that makes your cell phones work. So that
includes these galvanized steel towers and all these antenna
systems that you maybe just see a blinking light in the
distance. If you see one of those, VIKOR and companies like
ours have done that. It has been my privilege for the last 30
years to witness the build-out of cellular.
I just coincidentally got into this industry when it was
just starting in South Dakota and put up some of the very first
towers. In those days, we just had one tower in every
community, and then eventually they built them on highway
corridors and are filling the gaps, but even over 30 years,
there is still a lot of white spaces, as Dr. Griffiths talked
to us about, both with fiber and also with mobile broadband.
And we are trying to fill those as best we can and as quickly
as we can but there is always impediments. I like to liken the
wireless infrastructure buildout of today to the electric
buildout of 70 years ago. I had a partner when we founded
VIKOR, formerly Sioux Falls Tower, that actually did not have
power into his home in rural Stickney until he was 12 years
old, and he use to tell us these stories and he is about 20
years older than me, but and I am like, you cannot be serious,
you had to have power, but no, he did not. They waited for
power to come. And what did they do in preparation for that?
They bought the appliances at Sears, they had the lights put
in, and then they just waited for those poles to come down
their rural road and they just anticipated that.
Well we have many people in rural America today that are
doing the exact same thing with wireless broadband or even
wired broadband. They want it so much, but they just can't get
it quick enough because it is expensive to do this big
buildout. We also have people, and we read about them every day
in the news, that say not in my backyard. They do not like that
infrastructure. They think it is ugly and it is really
interesting because while we have these big, galvanized steel
towers holding overhead power wires, and they are not even
noticed, another group of people will say, well, I do not want
a tower, I mean that is ugly. We do not want that.
And there is only one of those and there might be dozens of
these other towers they are looking at. They are very similar
and so it is kind of a mentality shift that we have to
overcome. But thankfully we are getting more and more people.
And just like Senator Fischer said before in her comments. She
lives on a ranch South of Murdo where Governor Thune grew up
but quite----
Senator Fischer. We like to say South of Valentine.
[Laughter.]
Mr. Shlanta. OK, South of Valentine. If we are in South
Dakota, we can say Murdo, she can say Valentine. That is her
choice. But anyway, and I asked her, well how many bars of
coverage do you have? And she says, oh, we have like zero or
one. I mean not enough, just enough to send text messages. If
you can get one bar, you can get out a text, but you cannot get
online and you can't really talk on, you know, voice.
So, we have a lot of work to do. Thankfully more and more
people are saying instead of not in my backyard, please in my
backyard. Now, in some cities they are not saying that but--and
even sometimes on the reservations, they are not saying that,
but we have some work to do there. But we are thankfully
partnering with industry and Government to close the digital
divide. We have a ton to do and there is no time to waste.
Technology is advancing at the speed of thought, and we had
some really smart people working on things that we do not even
know where it is going to go yet.
So, while we continue to close the gap in this digital
divide in Rural America, in what I refer to as the white spaces
in our industry, we also have this really awesome technology
that is available now called 5G, fifth generation wireless. So,
when you are on your phone today, you are either on 3G or 4G.
You do not always know but this 5G is now on the cusp of roll
out. Oh man, I got to hurry up here. So, what do companies like
VIKOR do? We put up that infrastructure. We represent just 1 of
900 companies in the National Association of Tower Records
commonly referred to as NATE. So, my voice is just an echo of
those other 899 plus companies out there. We need more
workforce.
The biggest bottleneck to VIKOR's ability to help build out
this rural infrastructure and in even this infrastructure in
the cities, is people. And so, our plea is how can we find a
way to open up the door to more and more workers? And we really
applaud South East Technical Institute who is hosting us today
in this beautiful facility. They are presently working on one
of the first programs in the United States to train workers and
we encourage them to do that.
If some of you are here today and you have the financial
means to support them through grants or scholarships to future
students, we are hoping to launch that program in January. They
will be using the VIKOR facility for our training center,
state-of-the-art, wonderful facility, to help train those
students. So, what are we asking for?
First of all, we commend Commissioner Carr for doing such a
wonderful job of highlighting the challenges that we face. Just
like rural electric was getting billed out years ago, we need
your help. There is a bill in Congress, Senator Thune and
Senator Fischer, that is before the House right now. We would
love to see sponsorship from the Senate. It is H.R. 1848,
Communications Training Act of 2019, bipartisan with Democrat
Congressman Loebsack and Republican Mullen. It does require
funding and I understand from Alex that funding in the Senate
means you have to find you have to take money from somewhere
else to put it in.
So, we understand that, but it would provide $20 million
per year and I think that would be a really great start. So,
thank you so much and sorry I went over time.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Snyder follows:]
Prepared Statement of Craig Snyder, Chief Executive Officer,
VIKOR Teleconstructoin
Introduction
Good afternoon. And thank you, Mr. Thune, for inviting me to
testify at this hearing.
By way of introduction, I am one of the co-founders and the chief
executive officer of VIKOR Teleconstruction. (Formerly known as Sioux
Falls Tower)
We are a 30-year-old firm specializing in the construction of
mobile broadband infrastructure. We've been headquartered here in Sioux
Falls since 1989 with offices throughout the Great Plains and mountain
states. In layman's terms, we build the towers and antenna systems that
transmit the signals that talk to cell phones across the country.
Rural Broadband Like Rural Electric
It's been my privilege to witness the build-out of wireless
broadband services that coincidentally began at the start of my
professional career.
I started as a tower technician myself working my way through
college. This remarkable buildout has not been unlike the electric grid
buildout in this part of the country 70+ years ago. Cellular started
slow with one tower serving each city and then spread to small towns
and rural corridors. But just like with the rural electric buildout,
the last to receive electricity have been the vast wide-open spaces
with sparse population.
One of my founding partners, Edwin Stritecky, used to tell me how
anxiously his family waited for electricity to be brought to their
farm. They had the house wired, appliances purchased, and then they
waited and waited for the rural electric cooperative to run the power
poles and wires down their country road near Stickney, SD. Can you
imagine today if there were people without power to their rural homes.
We'd move heaven and earth to get them power. We're getting there with
broadband, but we have a way to go.
Over the past 30 years we have heard many voices expressing
sentiments of not wanting towers in their backyards. But like the rural
electric customers of yesterday, now we are hearing more and more a
different cry from our rural and urban neighbors. ``Please in my
backyard''. People are hungry for mobile broadband and covet the
reliability and speeds they get a flavor of when they travel to places
where it is more common. When they hear talk of 5G in the news, many
are still waiting for 2 or 3 bars of 3 or 4G coverage. Towers are
becoming a symbol of these sentiments.
Closing the Digital Divide
Thankfully the partnership of industry and government have begun to
make a difference. The ``white spaces'' are beginning to shrink and the
digital divide between the cities and rural areas is closing. But there
is a ton to do and no time to waste. Technology is advancing at the
speed of thought and the global race to 5G is on. Even while we
continue to close the ``white spaces'' gaps in rural America we are
also ramping up our efforts in the cities to roll-out ``Fifth
Generation Wireless'' commonly known as 5G.
5G
5G has enormous technology and economic ramifications for America.
Not only does it bring the consumer 1 gigabyte download speeds and 1-3
milliseconds latency, if America wins the 5G wireless race, the
economic ramifications and benefits are huge. We reap the harvest of
hundreds of billions in investment that will set America up to be the
driver to the rest of the world.
Applying the possibilities of 5G are largely yet unknown. When
applied to mobile devices and machine-to-machine communications, the
opportunities cannot be overstated. We are just now gaining a glimpse
of what incredible applications will spring from this technology
breakthrough.
One simple example I like to use is autonomous driving cars. The
day is not too distant when a Tesla will drop off its owner at work in
the morning, work as a self-driving UBER throughout the day, then come
and pick her up and drive her home in the evening.
Application to Companies Like VIKOR
So how does this apply to a company like mine? The ramp-up to fill
white spaces with services like AT&T's FirstNet, and the global race to
5G in the urban areas is pushing demand beyond the supply we have
workforce to fill.
The National Association of Tower Erectors commonly referred to as
NATE and headquartered right here in South Dakota, has done a
remarkable job of raising the bar in safety and standardization of the
wireless infrastructure workforce. My voice represents the 900 other
member companies like mine. The explosive growth on the horizon will
push demand for skilled workers even higher.
By way of example, an entry-level wireless infrastructure
technician can earn upwards of $60,000 per year. Skilled workers well
beyond this. We have been a long-neglected trade among our electrician,
plumbing, mechanic, and other fellow tradesmen in terms of educational
opportunities. Whereas there are programs for most trades, there are
not for tower technicians. Tower Technicians must be trained by the
companies that onboard them. Companies like VIKOR. This is a long and
expensive process, costing my company around $12,000 in the first 6
months of employment. We need more trade schools like Southeast Tech to
establish training programs for tower technicians to fill current and
future demand. And to this end I applaud my friends here at Southeast
Tech for considering launching a program here in Sioux Falls in the
near future.
What We Are Asking For
So, what am I and the 900 member companies of NATE hoping for?
First off, we commend Commissioner Brendan Carr and the rest of the
Federal Communications Commission for being forward-thinking in
clearing regulatory hurdles in advance of the 5G build-out.
Whereas the electric utility industry has almost no zoning or
Federal hurdles involved in placing their elevated steel infrastructure
across our cities and rural areas, telecommunications towers have been
met with resistance at almost every turn.
The FCC has worked hard under great opposition to help level the
playing field. But there is more work to be done. We need help with
both regulatory hurdles and workforce development. Presently there are
bills in both the house and senate that could help alleviate the
burdens on our industry.
In particular we could use some help from the Senate with a
companion bill to H.R. 1848--Communications Training Act of 2019, a
bipartisan bill sponsored by Representatives Dave Loebsck (D-IA) and
Markwayne Mullin (R-OK). This bill would appropriate $20m per year for
three Fiscal Years to develop classroom and field-based curriculum and
certificate programs like the one being proposed by Southeast Tech.
With this kind of help from Congress, the playing field in the global
race to 5G against China and others is substantially equaled.
Conclusion
Once again, thank you, Mr. Thune, for inviting me to testify. And
thank you for your foresight in calling this hearing and being the
singular member of Congress that really understands the importance of
the United States winning the global race to 5G.
Senator Thune. Thank you, Mr. Snyder. And last up is the
good gentleman from South Dakota State University, Dr. Michael
Adelaine, as I said. And he has been a faculty member at SDSU
since 1990 and now serves as the Vice President for Technology
and Security at SDSU. So, we welcome you here. Look forward to
hearing what you have to say.
STATEMENT OF MICHAEL ADELAINE,
VICE PRESIDENT FOR TECHNOLOGY AND SECURITY,
SOUTH DAKOTA STATE UNIVERSITY
Mr. Adelaine. Thank you. Good afternoon, Chairman Thune and
Senator Fischer. Thank you for the invitation to testify today.
I would like to address specifically the intersection of
broadband connectivity and Precision Agriculture. Precision
Agriculture is based on collecting data in real time and
adjusting farm or ranch operations to correspond to the new
information.
Sensors can provide data on multiple aspects of
agricultural enterprise, whether it be temperature, soil
moisture, or nutrient availability for plant growth. Sensors
could also provide data on animal health, feed conversion, and/
or performance. When we speak of improving connectivity, we
need to talk about the last mile in and at the farm or ranch.
So many times, connectivity is describing what is available in
the nearest local community. Once you are outside that area,
broadband availability can drop off significantly.
For Precision Agriculture to have the impact the
agricultural scientists believe it can, data, and I mean big
data, will need to flow freely from the field, to the farm
office, up to the cloud, back to the operation in near real
time. We can now analyze plant images to detect some plant
diseases up to 2 days before the human eye can spot the
problem. Being able to quickly move thousands of high-
resolution images acquired close to the plants in the field
currently is a major barrier to widespread production. South
Dakota farmers planted approximately 13.5 million acres of
corn, soybeans, winter wheat, spring wheat, and sunflowers in
2019.
One day of hyper specular imagery of every South Dakota
crop acre with a coarse resolution of 1 pixel representing 1
square centimeter would be a huge yield of data. To put the
challenge into perspective, if the imagery was acquired when
the sun was at optimum angle between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., it
would take 1,500 high-speed fiber optic connections, like the
100-Gig connections SDSU has to move images to its computers
for processing now.
Another way to look at it is if agricultural researchers
wanted to collect all the data possible from a single plant,
that would be 18.4 gigabytes per plant or 432 terabytes of data
on the average field. To put it into perspective, Library of
Congress holds about 15 terabytes of data. So, the average
cornfield holds 28 times as much data to be processed in the
growing season.
Because South Dakota has a highly variable production
environment witnessed by the phrase, just wait a minute the
weather will change, producers have become early adopters of
technology to deal with the variability. We strongly believe
they will embrace new technologies and it can make a difference
if we have the bandwidth. A consulting company projected that
Precision Agriculture is expected to increase rural State
production by additional $650 million to $1.5 billion from crop
production alone in the next 10 years.
I would like to say that SDSU is deeply committed to
supporting Precision Agriculture. With its first in the Nation,
the Precision Agriculture program and investments by donors, we
will be building an innovation technology facility with a
commitment of over $46 million. Senator Thune, thank you for
this opportunity on behalf of not only South Dakota State
University, but also the people of South Dakota we serve.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Adelaine follows:]
Prepared Statement of Dr. Michael Adelaine, Vice President for
Technology and Security, South Dakota State University
Good afternoon Chairman Thune. Thank you for the invitation to
testify today. It is privilege to present on a topic that is so
impactful for South Dakota and surrounding rural states.
As Vice President for Technology and Security, I am charged with
supporting the mission of South Dakota State University, which as you
know, has a tripart purpose around teaching, research and outreach. We
also provide access to the benefits of higher education through our
mission. Each of these, whether it's teaching, research or outreach,
but access to broadband is a critical part of meeting that mission and
serving the citizens of South Dakota.
I did not start on the administrative side of a university.
Instead, I began as an Extension computer specialist teaching farmers
and ranchers how to use computers and software. I also managed one of
the first websites that provided digital access to Extension services
and information. Anyone who wanted to have those publications then
would have had to dial from a telephone line into 300-baud modem pools
to get connected and download publications that would take several
minutes, at best, to complete.
Today, my division at SDSU oversees the networks and technology on
our main campus in Brookings, as well as at off-campus learning
centers, regional Extension offices and various Agricultural Experiment
Stations in the state. At many of these sites, we connect using 100-
Megabyte circuits that aggregate back to campus on a 100-Gigabit
connection. As you know, technology and the demands for enhanced
technology continue to change and the need for better and faster
connectivity is important.
As the world population continues to grow--some projections
estimating an increase of 2 billion by 2050 (6/17/2019 United Nations),
the need for an efficient and effective food and fiber production
system will be essential. Precision Agriculture will be one of the
building blocks on which the production system will be built.
A group of university professors from around the United States
authored a paper titled, ``Advancing U.S. Agricultural Competitiveness
with Big Data and Agricultural Economic Market Information Analysis,
and Research,'' for The Council on Food, Agricultural and Resource
Economics. They describe Precision Agriculture as ``a suite of
information technologies used as management tools in agricultural
production.''
I interpret that statement to mean Agriculture is an evolving tech
industry of today.
Continuing the analogy, broadband connectivity will be the mortar
that will hold together those building blocks, enabling the various
technologies necessary for a successful precision ag ecosystem. This
ecosystem will consist of big data, artificial intelligence, GPS,
digital maps, and the ``internet of things.''
The Council on Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics' paper
noted that current advances in technology have increased the Total
Factor Productivity--the efficiency of inputs being transformed into
outputs--at an average of 1.47 percent annually. The increase can be
attributed within the value of field-level data, but the opportunity
for even greater increases exists by utilizing a wider range of
aggregated data with other data sets suitable for pooled analysis. This
type of data comparisons takes decisions out of a specific field and
widens it to entire farms and potentially beyond.
The tractors of today are command centers that constantly receive
data while operating and are able to adjust to the new information in a
matter of seconds. This is valuable data, but also data that currently
operate in a silo as much of that data transfers from tractor to
tractor by hardware.
Imagine a scenario where the tractors' connectivity is done in the
cloud through wireless technology from multiple sources in real time.
When you add information being sent from drones and satellites to that
system, it could create less time in the field for the farmers, meaning
less overhead, less fuel and a more sustainable and efficient food
production system.
Imaging from drones can be used to identify nutrient deficiencies
in plants, weeds, insects, or diseases that can be treated immediately.
The imaging comes from sensors that utilize complex software through
Global Positioning Systems and Geographic Information Systems.
The use of drones extends beyond crop management to ranching by
monitoring range conditions and virtual fencing to create precision
grazing. Drones would monitor animal health and status of newborn
livestock, field conditions, and overall performance to develop data
useful in comparing range versus pasture settings.
Drones would also be utilized for field management and spraying by
tracking weather conditions and weather forecasts to determine the
optimal time for field treatments.
Imagine a scenario where farmers are able to better own clean data
and provide information to industry, producers and universities like
South Dakota State, which are working to develop the next generation of
farming technology to meet the population demands of the future while
working toward even more sustainable and greener farming practices that
will benefit future generations.
Precision Agriculture is the site-specific implementation of
management practices that will economically optimize yields while
maintaining the soil, water, atmospheric, plants, and animal natural
resources.
That future is now and high-speed connectivity to rural South
Dakota and neighboring states is what is needed.
SDSU is a global leader in Precision Agriculture and Dr. John
Killefer, dean of the College of Agriculture, Food and Biological
Sciences, is an expert in the field. Dr. Killefer's recent presentation
to the South Dakota Joint Appropriations stated that South Dakota
``producers are early adopters of technology.'' According to a 2017
report from Agribusiness Consulting, Precision Agriculture is expected
to increase gross state product by an additional $615 million to $1.5
billion from crop production alone in the next decade.
Precision Agriculture at SDSU is not new. Since 1968, there have
been more than 750 publications from SDSU faculty and researchers that
talked about some aspect of Precision Agriculture. A 1968 edition of
Winter Farm and Home Research Magazine had an article titled
``Precision Information for Irrigation Planning.'' The article
discussed the utilization of a 16-square-foot lysimeter to measure
water infiltration to a hardwired recorder that was placed on the edge
of the field. Today, these measurements are done with an app on a
smartphone to a wireless receiver.
More than 175 students are currently enrolled in the Precision
Agriculture program, seeking either a bachelor's degree or minor in the
field. These students are on the cutting edge of agronomics, high-speed
sensor technology, data management and advanced machine learning using
high performance computers. They are the next generation of farmers,
engineers, producers and even business leaders. More importantly, they
are the next generation of mostly South Dakotans who will support our
state's largest industry.
Senator Thune, I want to thank you for the opportunity on behalf of
not only South Dakota State University, but also the people of South
Dakota we serve. Our passion in the area of Precision Agriculture is
evident and we are prepared to lead not only the United States, but the
world, in this growing industry.
Thank you for your consideration of this need and efforts to
transform rural America.
Senator Thune. We thank you very much, Dr. Adelaine, for
being here. So, tell me again, Library of Congress?
Mr. Adelaine. 15 terabytes, and a cornfield, if you add all
the data from individual plants, would be 438 terabytes.
Senator Thune. OK, that certainly puts things into
perspective. Well, it is exciting to see the technology and the
way that it is being applied and the difference that it is
making for farmers across this country, in terms of the
productivity and yields. Pretty staggering. So well, thank you
all for you for your remarks. We are going to ask you a few
questions and try to have a little discussion going here.
And I will start off and then yield to my colleague Senator
Fischer, but Commission Carr, at previous hearings we have
discussed the importance of the Federal programs that are
available to carriers to help with deployment of reliable
broadband services, and last year the FCC took several positive
steps to put the Federal Universal Service Programs on a more
solid foundation for years to come.
And if you could elaborate on what steps the Commission
took, how those actions will help expand the availability of
high-speed Internet services in rural America and places like
South Dakota?
Mr. Carr. Thanks, Chairman Thune, for the question. We have
been in the process of the FCC reorienting the Universal
Service Program. For those that do not know it, it is about a
$10 billion a year fund that we oversee and administer at the
FCC. And we have been reorienting that funding toward truly
unserved and underserved communities and prioritizing them.
That has resulted, among other things as we talked about, in
millions of dollars of new funding coming to South Dakota to
serve over 40,000 new locations with just one tranche of
funding alone.
And we were out on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation and we
are seeing some of those dollars being plowed right into the
ground to be trenching fiber, pulling conduit, and connecting
communities. When you step back and think of the broader
economic impact that comes from these Federal dollars, we are
being good stewards of it, we are policing waste fraud and
abuse, and it is expanding economic opportunity everywhere
where this funding is supporting build out.
Senator Thune. Well thanks for doing it, and I think with
the announcement a few weeks ago, South Dakota alone for the
next decade we are looking at about $700 million that should be
deployed which will make a huge difference in a lot of lot of
places in rural South Dakota. Mr. Snyder, fixed wireless
services also have been a part of the solution to bring high-
speed services to rural South Dakota. Can you talk about your
role in installing wireless towers and how they are used to
help close the digital divide?
Mr. Snyder. Sure. So, if you think about tower sites, you
have capacity sites and you have coverage sites. So, coverage
is like trying to fill the white spaces and capacity is, we
have too many people in one area, we need to put a lot of
sites. And we have both problems in the U.S. and there is only
so many dollars to be spent from AT&T, Verizon, and people like
that or even fiber broadband.
And so, they have to decide well, where are we going to put
it. So, what VIKOR does is we go out and put those towers up
wherever the money is. But like for example, Verizon has to
decide are they going to spend it in Minneapolis or Myrtle? We
are going to spend it in Pine Ridge or Portland. And so
sometimes the white spaces get neglected because there is only
so much, but we have this workforce--just we are going wherever
we have to go in putting these vertical structures up, and we
still have a long ways to go, but thankfully we have a lot of
help from the Federal Government, more so now than we have ever
had.
Senator Thune. Mr. Shlanta, and just to continue the
conversation on the buildout of broadband services, SDN's owner
companies, which include many of the South Dakota independent
telephone companies have been leaders in expanding broadband
services throughout some of the most remote parts of the state.
How have you been able to leverage some of the Federal
opportunities available, and what do these opportunities mean
for rural consumers and businesses?
Mr. Shlanta. Thank you, sir. And I would just like to
comment, as I was listening to my other panelists speak, and
Commissioner Carr, when you were a mile underground, the fiber
connection that is supplied at the mine is through SDN
Communications. The university campuses that Mr. Adelaine
talked about, Dr. Griffiths talks about, through SDN
Communications. The eCARE Center that they have there operates,
again, through SDN Communications.
And many of those towers that Mr. Snyder talks about come
from the backbone connections and the last mile connections of
the independent phone companies owned by SDN Communications.
But coming back to your question on the Federal programs, I
touched on the Reconnect Program, which is through Department
of Agriculture. It was $600 million to help expand broadband
across the country, and in our state, to my knowledge, there
were three applications.
That is one example of how, and through the Department of
Agriculture, if we are successful in those applications, we
will take new high-speed facilities, fiber facilities, we might
serve last mile and a combination of fiber and radio, but it
will be delivering services to locations that do not have a
facility today. And so, I think about the opportunities that
are being opened up through those types of grants. You know,
the telehealth connection that Commissioner Carr talked about,
from your home and how the world will be starting to change,
and will consume telehealth from our homes. Those kind of
services will be opened up in areas that frankly are the most
remote and those are the people that have to travel the
furthest distances to find their health care services.
When you go to those communities and you see the kids in
those communities, their ability to go home and do homework is
negatively impacted because they do not have access to the
broadband infrastructure. The parents cannot do online banking,
you know, some of the things that we take advantage of right
from our own kitchen tables cannot be accomplished in those
areas.
So, I look at those programs, Reconnect is one example, as
ways to continue to extend broadband facilities into new areas
and ultimately help reach that goal, like you talked about at
the very beginning, of trying to deliver broadband services to
everybody who wants it. And some of those areas, because of the
density, the remoteness, and the cost to get there, really
without support through some of the Federal programs, it just
is--it is not attainable through the commercial markets, so we
do appreciate the different programs that are put together, and
just the Department of Agriculture was one example. And you
touched on the continuing support from the FCC that is now
coming through the $700 million over the next decade.
Senator Thune. Dr. Griffiths, having access to reliable
broadband has allowed a lot of higher-ed institutions to
integrate technology into their curriculum, and it is key to
helping students and faculty stay at the forefront of
innovative research. SDSU has many exciting projects including
the Wireless Mobile Computing Initiative, which provides new
students with a tablet that they can use throughout the school
year to create a more interactive classroom environment. Can
you kind of tell us how that program has supplemented students'
learning experience?
Ms. Griffiths. Thank you very much for the question
Senator. Yes, every one of the students coming to University of
South Dakota--South Dakota State University is given a laptop
when they come, and it is a pretty high-end laptop. What that
allows us to do is ensure that everybody has the capability
they need to go through the various classes that we offer. And
we know those computers are capable of carrying the software
and the applications that those students need. They are
required to use our laptops for 2 years and after that they can
swap out and take something else. It really makes a difference
when everybody has access to the same technology, so we do not
have to run around and have difference of maintenance
agreements. We maintain those laptops too by the way. We
maintain the same equipment for Lake Area Technical College.
So because we have the volume of activity that we have our
own maintenance program for those laptops, but it does allow
the students in class to get access to a variety of different
resources, the virtual labs, the advanced computer simulations
that put them into a sort of a virtual reality environment so
that they can actually practice and see things in three
dimensions as opposed to just reading about it in the book. So,
there are lots of applications in the educational sphere that
require people to have just even a base level technology.
And our students can go anywhere on campus and they can
connect, and they love staying on campus, I should say. It has
had an impact on the students wanting to live on campus and now
we are seeing more and more of our upperclassmen wanting to
come back and live on campus because of the amenities we
provide. I am sure it is not just the laundry. I am sure it is
not just the gaming suites. I am sure the access to a reliable
high-speed broadband is a key factor in their wanting to come
back and live on campus.
Senator Thune. Very good. I would think as a college
student trying to pinch pennies that free Wi-Fi would be a
pretty big incentive. Ms. Larson, telehealth services have
dramatically expanded the improvement, as we noted earlier, of
broadband services in rural America. You touched on that in
your remarks, but how have you seen this expansion transform
the patients and healthcare providers' experience in areas that
lack sufficient healthcare services, particularly specialty
care services?
Ms. Larson. Well, thank you, Senator Thune. Specialty care
services specific. So, I will just use a case right here in
South Dakota. Cancer care. Cancer care, we did actually find
out at Avera that there actually was an area going really North
of Pierre in Redfield, all the way down through Valentine, that
was really lacking access to cancer care and we really needed
to--you know, you either needed to be on the East side of the
state or the West side of the state.
And actually understanding, and if you understood the
recruitment process for the cancer care team, so first of all,
those individuals, there is only a few of them trained in that
way and they are hard to recruit, and they need a population to
serve. So, we had an experience. We have many--we talk about,
you know, we can put eConsult in front of almost any
specialist, but we actually then, the hardest one for me was
when one of the CEOs came to me and said, can we do eRadiation
Oncology. That is a group of about five physicians who need to
be available to do a radiation treatment, and it was a pretty
big undertaking, it was, how do you actually--first of all, do
we have the broadband space to make sure we have the PACS
imaging and all of those pieces going perfectly, and can we
actually provide enough visual viewing for a physician to be
able to see the patient?
And in this case, it was in Pierre, South Dakota to do
radiation oncology treatment from Sioux Falls, South Dakota or
from Aberdeen, or now from Yankton. Interestingly enough, we
actually were able to provide the right camera space to afford
us the opportunity to use a specialist who wants to have a
wide--wants to have enough population to serve that they feel
comfortable after those decades of learning and actually
training to do that service that they have a population to
serve.
So, we now have that capability through technology on the
telehealth where the physician can look into the vault and see
the patient, see a lot of technology, making sure that it is
exactly the way it is supposed to be and that they can actually
provide the treatment from the physician here in Sioux Falls
and the patient in Pierre. Why is that important? Because in
that space that I just described, from Redfield going down to
Valentine, there were many women, I will just use cancer care
for breast cancer, just deciding to forego that treatment, do
not do the radiation oncology. It takes a month and it is a
Monday through Friday thing and you do not feel good after you
have that done. So maybe I will just do the complete
mastectomy, or I just will not to do the care because my
husband needs me on the farm, my partner needs me to do these
things, take care of the children, etc.
So now with that access, we have actually seen an increase
in radiation oncology in Pierre. It is more than 50 percent
more than what we anticipated would be. So that means that
those treatments for radiation oncology in Pierre, South Dakota
are going on at home. So that is just as--it is a very special
technology, a very special specialty, if you will, meeting five
different specialists that would have not been able to be
recruited to Pierre to provide that service had it not been for
telehealth.
Senator Thune. Thank you. Dr. Adelaine, I understand that
the SDSU offers the first-in-the-Nation Bachelor of Science in
Precision Agriculture. You talked about this earlier, but could
you just maybe further describe the intersection between new
technologies and agriculture, and what that means for a South
Dakota farmer? Bring it home to the farm.
Mr. Adelaine. You bet. So, if you are looking at what we
think might be a savings or return on value, we believe that
for the average corn producer, they could see a 10 to 15
percent increase in profit by the use of technologies,
Precision Agriculture technology. And for the soybean and wheat
producer, we could see a 5 to 10 percent increase in profit for
that. But I also like to mention what I think is an intangible.
Senators, you know that farmers and ranchers are real
stewards of the land, right, and with Precision Agriculture
allows them to sharpen that to the point where they are taking
even better care of what they believe they want to pass on and
take good care of. It allows them to do that even more. So, I
think that will be an intangible benefit that all of us will
reap because of their efforts.
Senator Thune. Thank you. Senator Fischer.
Senator Fischer. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Ms. Larson, I
would like to follow up a little bit on a question about what
Avera eCARE is able to provide, especially to patients in homes
throughout the underserved, unserved rural areas of the State.
Your company has a great history in telemedicine. I guess I am
really interested in the lessons that you have learned and how
you have achieved some success in reaching I believe over 300
communities. I know there are challenges that you faced along
the way. I am specifically interested in how have you overcome
the challenges in terms of scaling hospital to patient Internet
connections across rural America, and who have you partnered
with in that endeavor?
Ms. Larson. Well, first of all, I want to make sure that I
mentioned here that we are very dependent upon some of the
Federal funding, USAC funding as an example, as we find a rural
community hospital that really could be eligible to decrease
the monthly cost of their services. We make sure we introduce
that opportunity and assist them in any way that we can to
research the USAC funding. We of course also use ESDA. We know
a lot about what USDA will fund as far as the technology that
is needed in those communities, and we lean into that heavily
and help others understand that as well.
It is interesting when you get into rural communities how
many of those funds that may be available to them, they are not
familiar with. So, as an organization, we do quite a bit of
that. So, who have we partnered with? So, what did we learn
first and who did we partnered with? Last mile connectivity was
mentioned just a little bit earlier. So, it is often, when we
are in Kansas and we need to get to Wichita, is there anything
in between there for broadband, and how do we do that better?
So sometimes we actually put help--reach out to Mark. Mark
helps us a lot with where the circuitry is, what is available
there in those states and those communities.
And sometimes we will partner either with Mark or our local
Telco to understand what it is that we need to do to get that
last broadband into that hospital to make sure that we have
continuous connectivity. So, in many times, broadband, that
last mile, will be what will wait a number of months to
actually get that last connection. We may be up and ready to go
and it will take another couple of months for that last mile
connectivity to go, for various reasons, but I would say maybe
Mark can comment a bit on what those reasons are a little
deeper. But that is often a holdup that we don't have that last
mile connectivity.
So, we have learned to try to plan ahead of that. There is
a lot of other issues with telehealth, meaning physicians'
licensure, those things and things, but we try to space that
very carefully so that once a rural provider decides that they
need some support in their community with telemedicine, they
have been through a lot of discernment to get there and so they
would like to have it next month. So, it takes a little bit of
time to help them understand what will require.
Senator Fischer. OK. So, let us go to the last mile again.
When we look at the last mile and we understand the challenges
that are out there, a lot of times it is with funding, of
course, but when the need is so great, how are we going to get
there?
Mr. Shlanta. Well, that is a great question--Senator
Fischer: So, you kept bringing it up. So, there we go.
[Laughter.]
Mr. Shlanta. So now I get to answer the question. Senator
Fischer: Yes, help us figure out how we can get these services
to areas that truly need them. Mr. Shlanta: You know, I think
that one of the first things we have to do is really examine
the data sets we use to identify the areas that are in need for
broadband connectivity. We have all worked through a series of
data collection. We have moved it upstream and I think as we
move forward, getting data at the location level, which would
be a huge granular effort, but if not at the location level
then certainly using shapefiles to better coordinate the
geography where broadband exists, and broadband doesn't exist.
So being able to use good data will be part of our steps.
I think that as we start to identify those, I feel
personally, what are the types of applications that can be
created in those communities? Communities that have a clinic,
communities that have schools, communities that have banks
should be some of the ones that we start to prioritize toward
as a way to start to put the funds that we have available in
those markets first and continue to work out from there. I
think that will become a combination of last mile and middle
mile that will be needed in order to accomplish that because we
cannot have really all of these last mile roads leading into
choke points within a State. We have to also make sure we are
providing an examination of support for a robust middle mile
network.
Senator Fischer. Thank you. Ms. Larson, rural mental health
care is, I think, a huge void that we see across my State. I am
sure you see that in South Dakota as well. How are we going to
make sure that with all the advantages we see here with
telehealth, that we are able to have professionals be available
to rural communities as well when it comes to mental health? Do
you think telemental medicine has a place in that, and how can
we move that forward?
Ms. Larson. Thank you for that question. I think there is
absolutely a need in every community that we go to. It is one
of the first questions that is asked. Right now, we are
undergoing a pilot project to really support and understand how
to best serve those needs. Oftentimes the need shows up either
with first responders, police or Sheriff's departments and, or
in the emergency departments. So oftentimes these things
escalate into a situation where individuals may be transferred
or jailed because jail is the only place that anyone feels safe
to put them in. There is no one else in a rural community area,
or no other place, where the Sheriff or the individuals feel
safe to put them.
So, we are very concerned about that. The pilots that were
looking at are actually ride along the types of opportunities
meaning iPads, if you will, that are with a County Sheriff as
they go to a scene, go to a situation, may be in a home, where
there is a call that has been made and we can actually, have
proven that, get the individual who is causing that situation
on an iPad interview, try to deescalate the situation, and make
decisions about what is really needed. Do they need acute
therapy today, acute treatment, into the hospital whether they
are really going that route--if they do, they should go
immediately.
If not, can we deescalate that enough to do an ambulatory
process the next day. Not making them go to jail, which usually
escalates things worst and just causes a whole other scenario
of issues. So, our focus right now is to create that team that
can be the ride along with the Sheriff. We are not doing
municipal police departments at this point, but we are doing
County Sheriffs. What can we do in that area as an initial
point?
The other thing is when we think about that is if we can
reduce the assessments that actually need to go to the hospital
setting, we can keep the Sheriffs off the highway and keep them
in their home communities and home counties.
Senator Fischer. What do you think we can do at the Federal
level to change policy that would offer better support?
Ms. Larson. Part of that is, I think, the treatment plans
and the reimbursement plans. You know where the treatment often
ends up being a situation of who is going to pay for that
treatment and where do they go? So that is where a lot of the
incarceration occurs, and that escalation goes on there.
So, part of this for telehealth is the reimbursement of
telehealth and how can that reimbursement change into maybe a
therapist being reimbursed differently as well as mid-level
providers being reimbursed differently and being able to--
because a group of psychiatrists is a pretty small group. They
can lead all of this care and oversight the care provided by
the rest of the individuals, but I think if we could have a
broader scope of who can do some of those services, it would
make eligibility a lot more available.
Senator Fischer. Do you know if your state is looking into
making any changes to scope of practice that would be
beneficial?
Ms. Larson. You know, it is very state-to-state right now.
We actually have a lot of access in the State of South Dakota
to do many of those services in South Dakota.
Senator Fischer. Commissioner Carr, nice to see you again.
Thank you for coming out to South Dakota. Thank you for being
in Nebraska. And thank you for your leadership on the
Commission when it comes to rural issues. You and Chairman Pai
and Commissioner O'Reilly are always out doing these road
trips. We will get you back to Nebraska. I think it is
wonderful that you do that, and I appreciate it.
You have, I think, been a leader when it comes to creating
the Connected Care Pilot Program, and I know our seniors and
our veterans that live far from populous cities, they have to
not only overcome that digital divide, but they have to also
overcome a patient, doctor divide as well. And to be able to
distribute health care across this divide, I think, would
improve our patient outcomes, it is going to reduce costs,
which we are all very concerned about, but it is going to help
the patient.
To the extent that you are able, can you provide further
details on just where you at with proceeding with it and how
interested participants could expect to benefit from this
program? Just a great update would be helpful.
Mr. Carr. Certainly. Thank you, Senator, for the question
and thank you as well for your leadership in pushing on
healthcare for rural parts of the country and in rural
broadband connection. I think there is a focus, for some
reason, on this hearing on Valentine, Nebraska and I have a
story that is relevant----
Senator Fischer. But you are in South Dakota, remember,
so----
Mr. Carr. That is right. I will bridge the gap between the
two. When we were in Pine Ridge yesterday at the IHS facility,
there was a woman, Connie, who lives in Valentine and she is a
mental health, behavioral health specialist, and she is able to
video conference in. She works from her home in Valentine as a
mental health, behavioral health specialist and has video
calls, video conferences with folks on the reservation from
there because that connection.
What we have seen is when you are able to move the
provision of care outside the four corners of a brick and
mortar facility, it opens it up to people that cannot make
those travels to a healthcare provider, particularly in the
Great Plains and the winter with some of the weather is not
possible. But we have seen in trials to date on connected care
pilot care, which are delivering care directly to people, for
every dollar that has been invested in those pilots, there has
been a $3 return in terms of savings and of course significant
improvements in outcomes for those measured in bed days for
people not having to end up in the highest cost center for
healthcare system, which is the emergency department, or
improvements in their lives.
At the FCC we are doing a couple things. One, we are
continuing to support through subsidies connections to
hospitals, and we are now, as you asked, standing up this pilot
program. We voted just in July, I believe, to move forward with
that. It is the second to last step in our process which is a
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, and then we will move to an
Order hopefully within the next few months, and then we will be
opening up to application.
So, we are really reaching out to healthcare providers to
make them aware of the program and aware of the opportunities
to encourage them to apply for the program for funding. So, we
do think it can make a big difference, to your point, with
bridging this doctor divide. We see rural hospitals closing by
the dozens around the country, and we can replace some of that
with access to a doctor located somewhere else, whether it is a
big city--that can make a real difference.
Senator Fischer. When you look at funding for rural
hospitals, does the critical access designation have a part to
play in the formula?
Mr. Carr. Yes, we are working through exactly how we should
define the areas that we are targeting, and we are open to
ideas. One thing we have seen so far is some of the definitions
don't always line up. I was with Senator Capito in West
Virginia, I believe in Madison, West Virginia which is a pretty
rural, remote community but for some reason it is pulled into
Charleston, West Virginia for a lot of funding decisions and
therefore is not considered rural and remote.
So, there may be some steps you need to take with measuring
what is rural that reflects more of the practical experience on
the ground. And then as was mentioned, some of the licensing
and reimbursement issues might be some low-hanging fruit. Maybe
not low hanging, but some fruit to target at the Federal level
to make it easier to deliver care across State lines.
Senator Fischer. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, can I ask one
more----
Senator Thune. Absolutely.
Senator Fischer. Thank you. Mr. Shlanta, Nebraska's
Broadband Task Force has been analyzing ways to improve
broadband mapping throughout our state, especially in the wake
of difficulties with the FCC's mobility fund to challenge the
process. And I think we have made really good strides at the
State level, but there still is a focus on solving this at the
Federal level. So, given the FCC's authority to compel
reporting changes that providers submit for their coverage
areas, how can we improve accountability for providers
submitting information on their coverage areas while also
ensuring that there is a robust challenge process to fine-tune
what we actually have with broadband coverage and connections?
Mr. Shlanta. Another great question.
Senator Fischer. I know. I am giving you all these tough
ones here.
Mr. Shlanta. It is alright.
Senator Fischer. This gets down to the bones here, now,
though so----
Mr. Shlanta. You know, it does, and you know, I am not a
mobile carrier, so I am not the one who provides those reports
that you are talking about, those coverages, but I do think,
back to an effort that took place in South Dakota a number of
years ago. Now it took place, again, at the State level so
maybe similar to what is happening in Nebraska where the state
went out and mapped areas for broadband connectivity speeds
from the wireless carriers. In addition to those broadband
speeds. You would help to just identify areas where coverage
existed and coverage did not exist.
So, I think one of the keys are going to be--actually, some
kind of funding to put some boots on the ground to go out and
take some different measurements and get that data reported
back. And I do not think that is something you can rely on the
consumer to do, I think it will take an effort of a
professional to go out to the field and take some of those
measurements because at the end of the day, it comes to what
you are trying to get to is that good data that I have talked
about so that you can make those right decisions and where
those investments are needed to expand the coverage, explain
the broadband deployments, all of those things that ultimately
roll up to having good data.
Senator Fischer. Yes. I mean if we are going to take
advantage of Precision Agriculture, if we are going to be able
to do all the cool stuff with the Internet of things, we have
to have that coverage and we can only get that--I believe we
can only get that coverage if we have dependable maps that are
going to be available so we can make good decisions, the FCC
can make good decisions on just where this funding is needed
and where it should be targeted.
Mr. Shlanta. Yes. I do think--you know, from an Internet of
things standpoint would be access to precision ag sensors, you
know, wireless coverage is one way to accomplish getting that
data distributed. I also think for some operators, you know,
being connected to their terrestrial network and having perhaps
their own somewhat radio network to cover their fields will be
one solution so that you have that coverage in those areas
where that Precision Agriculture operator is producing their
crops.
And just to touch on Precision Agriculture, I did hear one
of Dr. Adelaine's colleagues last month talk about the need for
a more robust broadband speeds at agricultural locations, farms
and ranches. He was suggesting speeds of 100 up, 100 down is
needed to be able to take that data that Dr. Adelaine was
talking about, you know, those images, get them uploaded, get
them processed, and get the answers returned in a time-frame
that the Ag producer can act upon the data.
You know, three days later, sometimes the window of
opportunity for the Ag producer has passed. So, I do think this
speeds that help define broadband are something we are going to
need to continue to examine as well in the coming years.
Senator Fischer. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Thune. Thank you, Senator Fischer. Mr. Shlanta, one
thing you will find out about my colleague from Nebraska is
that she always asks hard questions.
[Laughter.]
Senator Thune. They are not confined just to witnesses.
[Laughter.]
Senator Thune. Could you just--and this is just for
purposes of many of us who don't traffic in the language, but
an example of middle mile versus last mile when you are
building that out in a community. Can you explain that or
somebody that----
Mr. Shlanta. Yes, thank you. You know, using South Dakota
as an example and then I will transition to Nebraska as well
for those who are more familiar with Nebraska. But in South
Dakota you know, I touched on the independent phone companies
and as I touched that in my comments, they serve about 80
percent of the State's land mass.
And so, think of them as I would consider them the last
mile provider, taking the connectivity out to the farm, the
ranch, tower, the bank, the hospital, whatever is in the
community where that service is needed. They will aggregate all
those different data connections back into a couple of key
locations in their markets, but carriers like SDN then come on.
We connect those independent companies.
So, we provide that backbone connectivity across the state
and ultimately deliver it the points outside the state, places
like content providers like Facebook or, you know, other
Internet providers, they have limited connectivity available to
them in the State of South Dakota. So, we help carry that to
points beyond the state so we can get out of those national
backbones so we can go straight from that National backbone
right into that hospital, home, that are in those markets.
So, the middle mile carrier, we bundle them all up and we
carry them across the state and out of the state so that we can
get on those National networks. Nebraska is, as I touched, I
think on a similar network, Nebraska Link. A fewer number of
companies, but they are working really to accomplish the same
things that we do here in South Dakota.
Senator Thune. And did I hear you say 50,000?
Mr. Shlanta. 50,000 miles of fiber facilities collectively
across SDN and its member companies. So, like I said circling
the world twice right here in the State of South Dakota, taking
those high-speed connections out to farms, ranches, banks,
anywhere it needs to be.
Senator Thune. That is a lot of fiber.
Mr. Shlanta. It is.
Senator Thune. You mentioned in this follow up on Senator
Fischer's question but the need for more accurate mapping and
one of the reasons we need that is to prevent overbuilding,
avoid some of the mistakes have been made in the past. So, what
steps do you think we need to take to prevent overbuilding? And
then I would like to have Commissioner Carr maybe follow up on
that. How do we get better coordination between the Federal
agencies? We talked about USDA and the FCC, both of which have
programs and resources that are targeted at deployment of high-
speed services in rural areas.
But to prevent some of those mistakes of the past and get
broadband out there in the most efficient way possible, how to
avoid the overbuilding? We have talked about, you know, we
always hear that, and we want to make sure that we are
deploying resources in the best way possible to the places that
need it the most.
Mr. Shlanta. Again, I will go back to I think location data
is one of the key pieces but when you think of all of the
locations across the country, that is a huge undertaking. So,
let us start to break that down into shape files, you know,
where to look. Where does that infrastructure exists? I think
no matter how hard we try, we are going to end up with I will
say some level of overbuilding. Someone is going to have built
a facility that did not get reported and then it is going to
look like it was perhaps an inefficient use of programs or
funds. But if that existing facility maybe provides
connectivity to a single location or is limited to what it is
accomplishing, is it really ultimately meeting its full need?
So I would say, we need to work hard but we need to
recognize that there will probably be some level that
ultimately exists but I do think the census block data at the
right time--at the beginning of try to gather this data may
have been the right granular level, it has shown us there are
flaws in that, especially in big census blocks across the
country and we need to start to move that into the next
granular step which I would say is a shapefile, and beyond
that, a location. What locations are served at what speed? If
you can get to that level of data, we will be able to make the
right decisions.
Senator Thune. Commissioner, anything you want to add to
that?
Mr. Carr. You know, I agree with a lot of that. We have
heard loud and clear both from providers and from leaders in
Congress. We have to do a better job at our math. That is going
to help address some of the overbuilding issues. We are also
coordinating, I think better, with some of the other agencies
on this.
We had maps, as was noted, at a census tract level for at
least 10 years, maybe more, and as was noted, they may have
made a lot of sense back then for the purposes they were
serving but we have come to rely on those maps pretty heavily
to make effectively billion-dollar funding decisions. So, we
have, at the FCC, decided to turn the page on some of those
older mapping approaches and we are launching into a new more
granular approach, whether it is shapefiles or otherwise to get
a lot better data. So, I think in D.C. there is often inertia
of adding another Christmas ornament to an existing process and
not starting from scratch, and I think we get it that we
basically need to start from scratch with our maps. Keep the
ones we have for the purposes that they are good for but let us
launch into a more accurate approach.
And I think I should note as well, you know, we are here at
Southeast Tech and when we talk about building out these
networks, and I know you have been a strong leader for these
workforce development issues. And as I mentioned the tower
crews alone could absorb another 20,000 workers. These are good
paying jobs and Southeast is looking at adding a tower tech
program, and I know you spoken in favor of it and I have as
well, and we got a briefing before this hearing on how that is
progressing and moving forward, and hopefully will result
ultimately in a tower training program pier. It would save
costs a lot on the industry that is looking to hire them, make
sure that people are comfortable working at heights and some of
the travel associated with jobs. I think that would be great.
I also want to recognize, you know, Craig and his whole
team. A lot of people we talked to turn their cell phone on,
they expect it to work, they assume it is magic or pixie dust.
They do not realize that it is America's hard-working men and
women that are the tower techs, that are climbing the towers,
that are building this. I spent some time with his teams,
Brandon, Leland, him, and Mike across the State and really
across the country, and they are doing great work. And as I
said in my statement, you know, what it takes to build out
these networks is thankfully what rural America has in spades.
It is hard work, grit, and determination.
And there is another provider I wanted to mention that I
saw was here, Tyler, who I met a couple years ago here, I guess
a year or so ago. He lives out in Parker, South Dakota. He
runs, a least back then, ran a very small wireless Internet
service provider. He was trying to solve his own digital divide
and get service to his old family farm, set up a wireless
connection, decided to go into business helping this community.
Took me up on the water tower above Parker and showed me some
of the people that he has been able to connect.
And so, we do a lot of work at the FCC, and you need to set
the right policies, and then it takes hard work and sometimes
duct tape and baling wire to actually bridge that last mile. So
just very thankful for the crews that are out there building
this infrastructure out. I think that is what being here today,
emphasizing the potential to stand up a training program to
create a pipeline for these 5G workers would be a really good
step.
Senator Thune. Thanks, and it should not be lost on anybody
why we are at Southeast Tech today. We are very hopeful about
that program and hopefully they can get it launched because I
do think there is a huge demand out there. And Craig and his
team and others who are in this business can attest to that and
having a prepared workforce and what would be very good paying
jobs. And I guess as long as you can handle some heights--how
far can you see from the top of the water tower in Parker
anyway?
Mr. Carr. You get a pretty good view from up there in
Parker. At least, I don't know, 15, 20 miles from up there.
Thankfully, when I was with some of Craig's crew on top of the
KLT broadcast, that was the 2,000-foot tower, thankfully it was
snowing that day so you could not see very far----
[Laughter.]
Mr. Carr.--which made it a lot easier on my fear of
heights.
Senator Thune. Well, it is a big--the workforce is a big
challenge across sectors of industry right now, but certainly
this one is one where we really need the help. And like I said,
I have, if nothing else, very capable, professional, skilled
people with a powerful work ethic here in South Dakota that can
fill a lot of those positions. So, we just need to make sure
that we can get them trained, and I hope that the project here
at STI ends up coming to fruition. Let me ask you very quickly,
T-Mobile, Sprint, good for rural areas? They have made a lot of
commitments and promises. Can the FCC enforce that when this
thing comes to----
Mr. Carr. Yes, I think this transaction is another really
good win, both for the Administration and for us at the FCC in
this really global race to 5G. From our perspective, big
cities, New York, San Francisco are going to get 5G almost no
matter what any of us do. The challenge is getting it into
every community, and with this transaction and the FCC looking
to approve the transaction, they have secured a commitment to
build out 5G to 99 percent of the U.S. population. And so that
is solving a digital divide that would be difficult to bridge
otherwise, so I think that is going to be a really good deal
for U.S. leadership.
Senator Thune. I want to ask just Dr. Griffiths, if I can
because I think this ties into all these discussions, but DSU
has been a leader, as you pointed out, in cybersecurity
throughout the state and the region, and each year the
university is producing more and more graduates with the tech
skills that are necessary to participate in that modern work
force. Earlier this year, I introduced the Cybersecurity
Exchange Act, which is legislation aimed at allowing for the
recruitment of cyber experts in both the private sector and
Academia.
As more South Dakotans go online and more innovations
become a reality, how important is it that our cyber security
capabilities and cyber workforce keep pace, and what would you
say are some of the ways that we ought to be investing?
Ms. Griffiths. Well, thank you for the question. I am
familiar with the legislation that was introduced. I think
cyber security is often forgotten in this world of, you know,
getting connectivity. The applications that we have heard about
today in healthcare and in Precision Agriculture have security
needs.
Unfortunately, at the code of state, we have to think about
bad actors. It is very easy to think about how bad actors can
interfere with the flow of services and flow of information
back and forth that enable these kinds of applications. And you
have heard me speak. I know about agriculture as a critical
infrastructure in the United States or any country for that
matter, and how vulnerable it is. I think what we are trying to
do--in a way in higher education, we have the luxury of
thinking ahead, right.
We are not responsible for providing all the infrastructure
and the services, but we have the luxury of thinking ahead
because we are educating people for jobs that don't really
exist yet and trying to see what happens next. So, I am
intrigued. You know, we have been talking for decades about the
last mile and we have talked about it a lot today. We talk
about the last inch, how do you ensure that applications and
information are secure to the last inch as we have people with
more and more devices that are connecting to the network. We
have more and more wearable devices that are going to be
critical in long-term care as the population ages in place.
So, I think it is even more important than ever before, and
the need for experts in the area of cyber security--I mean, you
know, and as I've indicated, we have plans to double the size
of our program, double the number of graduates. I am sure other
programs around the country are doing the same. We have been
working to form a national network of cybersecurity programs in
higher education so we can sort of leverage strengths that we
each have and begin to provide more support to each other and
also perhaps answer the call, if it comes, from the Federal
sector, if you need support from our experts, our expert
faculty, or some of our students who also have expertise and
security clearances can jump in as necessary. But I don't think
cybersecurity is going to become less and less of an issue. It
is going to become more and more important as we move forward.
Senator Thune. Thank you, and I could not agree more. I
just think that we trade, we want the connectivity, we want the
speed, and all that comes with that, but we also have to be
aware that there are bad actors out there and cyber security
and making sure we slam those doors shut is really critical.
And you are preparing the folks that are going to be helping us
do that in the future so thank you for doing that. Senator
Fischer, anything else you want to ask?
Senator Fischer. No, I just would like to thank you,
Senator Thune, for holding the field hearing. Again, it was a
pleasure to be here. I think it was an excellent hearing. Thank
you.
Senator Thune. Thank you for coming up and making the trip.
We appreciate it. Anybody on the panel, any thoughts, closing
comments, anything that we did not address that you think
should be addressed or observations or comments you would like
to make as we sort of wind it down here?
Mr. Adelaine. If I could make, Senator, one point quickly?
Senator Thune. Yes, Dr. Adelaine.
Mr. Adelaine. So, in 2004, when I took over at SDSU, we 12
Megs of bandwidth for research. We have 100-Gig now. So, as we
think about broadband, I cannot tell you what those
applications are, but I can tell you our researchers and
faculty are eating up bandwidth and data is flowing big time so
we really have to think where this thing might go way into the
future.
Mr. Shlanta. If I could add on to Dr. Adelaine's comments,
we too are seeing the throughputs on connections from homes,
ranches essentially doubling every two to 3 years. So, the
amount of bandwidth that is consumed by a household goes up.
And you touched on things like the Internet of Things, those
are various devices, those are all contributors to the amount
of data that moves. I do think as well those speeds that Dr.
Adelaine talked about, and I am seeing speeds in the last mile,
are going to be key to us staying ahead of the advances and the
applications.
We can create all the applications we want but if can't
move the data, they are not useful to us. So, I would encourage
Congress and the FCC to continue to look at what are those
right thresholds for data speeds that should be our minimums
for setting good broadband policy.
Ms. Larson. Senator, I would add one piece. As we talked
about the cyber security, it is certainly important in
healthcare as has been described, and we actually are forced to
carry cyber insurance, you know. If we do get held ransom, we
have to try--as we travel, the rural communities and ask the
hospitals, we actually require them to have a kind of an entry
level, if you will, cyber insurance and there are so many who
have not thought about it, not heard about it, so where can I
get that?
They go to their bank and the bank has not heard about it
or done anything about it. So, the awareness and the access to
it, entry level is I believe for most that have come back to us
and say we cannot find any, is at $10 million and so that is
pretty expensive for those critical access facilities. So, it
is an issue. It is, again, something that I am not sure how to
address but it is something of concern for us as we do enter
into the healthcare arena.
Senator Thune. Anything else guys?
[No response.]
Senator Thune. Good. Well, I want to--again, I will tell
anybody who wants to add to the record, if there are any
additional questions that we want to submit or anything, we
will keep the hearing record open for a period of time to
enable that to happen.
And I do want to thank the Commerce Committee. We have
several people out here from Chairman Wicker's staff, Olivia,
is here, and a trustee, Stephanie Gamache over here are running
the operation. Jeff Johnson, all work on the Commerce Committee
to make sure that when we have these hearings, both in
Washington D.C. and around the country, that it comes off
smoothly and hopefully well.
And so, we appreciate their presence here. Alex Sachtjen,
you know, my staff does our Commerce Committee portfolio in our
office and is a Burke, South Dakota native, so he was one of
the fortunate ones. His house, I think, stayed together. You
probably saw that we had a bad tornado in Burke, South Dakota,
wiped out a lot of the main street, and school, and everything
else.
But anyway, he does a great job for us. I think Senator
Fischer as well has somebody that does her work on the Commerce
Committee. So, we appreciate the work the staff does on a daily
basis to hopefully help us deal with our very challenging
issues and as we try and shape policies that will create a
brighter and more prosperous future for people here in South
Dakota, and rural areas of our country.
And we are grateful for the contributions that all the
folks in this room do to make that happen. So, thank you for
being here today. With that, we will adjourn.
[Whereupon, at 3:10 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
Statement of Joseph RedCloud, Member, Oglala Sioux Tribe, Pine Ridge
Indian Reservation; Executive Director, Oceti Sakowin Tribal Utility
Authority; Acting Chairman, Oglala Sioux Tribe Utilities Commission
I welcome the opportunity to submit written testimony on Rural
Broadband in South Dakota being hosted by Senator Thune and his
colleagues in the United States Senate. Recently, I went to Washington,
D.C. and met with Federal government officials on important issues
impacting Tribal lands, such as broadband availability, affordability
of service, and Tribal consultation.
Attached is my Statement on the important meetings that I had with
the Federal Communications Commission (``FCC'') and representatives of
the Senate and House of Representatives. I would like to highlight the
following points as part of my testimony in this hearing:
1. Tribal Consultation--the term ``Tribal consultation'' is loosely
used to refer to efforts by Federal authorities to consult with
Tribes on important issues impacting Tribes and residents of
Tribal lands. It could mean an ``e-mail,'' ``phone call,''
``presentation,'' or other form of communications with Tribal
representatives that may or may not have any knowledge or
direct involvement with the issues impacting Tribes and
residents of Tribal lands. Consequently, while the
communications may allow Federal authorities to check the
``Tribal consultation'' box it may not involve any meaningful
engagement with the responsible Tribal officials. The Oceti
Sakowin Tribal Utility Authority (``OSTUA'') submitted a
proposal to the FCC to establish a formal Tribal consultation
process with clearly defined criteria for meaningful engagement
with Tribes on matters impacting Tribal lands. I urge formal
consideration of this proposal.
2. Tribal Lifeline Service--Lifeline service is critical for
residents of rural Tribal lands, who typically are not able to
afford telecommunications and Internet service. The OSTUA
challenged a FCC order that would have significantly limited
Lifeline service on Tribal lands and won this challenge in
court, which represented an important step in ensuring
residents of Tribal lands have access to affordable telephone
and Internet service. Now, the FCC is implementing additional
reforms to the Lifeline program that threaten to effectively
limit Lifeline service on Tribal lands by (i) making it
difficult, if not impossible, for Tribal residents to be
verified as eligible for Lifeline service through a partially
implemented National Verifier, and (ii) establishing minimum
standards that will result in less service not better service.
The OSTUA has asked the FCC to reconsider these reforms to the
Lifeline program.
3. Availability of Broadband Service--unlike urban areas and other
areas, rural Tribal lands have very limited access to high
speed Internet service and when it is available, it is cost
prohibitive. It is therefore critically important for Congress
and the FCC to recognize the unique challenges to serving rural
Tribal lands and adopt policies, laws, and regulations that
enable companies, like Native American Telecom--Pine Ridge, to
provide affordable broadband service, an Internet Library and
Technology Center (where Tribal members can obtain free access
to computers and the Internet), and digital literacy training.
For some Tribal areas, the solution may lie with grants. For
other Tribal areas, the solution may be high cost universal
service funding. And for other Tribal areas, the solution may
be based upon an economic development business model. I urge
the FCC not to make any changes in the universal service
program or the intercarrier compensation rules without
conducting a thorough analysis of the impact of any new rules
or changes in existing rules on the availability and
affordability of broadband service on Tribal lands.
Respectfully submitted,
Joseph RedCloud
Enclosure
______
Chief RedCloud's Descendant Visits the Nation's Capital
My direct ancestor, Chief RedCloud, went to Washington, D.C. after
signing the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 that settled RedCloud's War and
established the Great Sioux Nation. Over the years, my other ancestors
(Chief Jack RedCloud, Chief James RedCloud, Chief Edgar RedCloud and
Chief Oliver RedCloud) also traveled to the Nation's capital to fight
for the rights of Native Americans. Last week, I followed in the
footsteps of my ancestors and met with Federal government officials.
My ancestors fought for our sacred land, which remains an issue
today, notwithstanding the 1868 Treaty. Yes, it may come as a surprise
to most Americans that 150 years ago, after years of battles, the U.S.
government settled the land disputes with the Lakota, Nakota and Dakota
Sioux Tribes to ensure Tribal ownership of the Black Hills. No sooner
was the ink dry on the Treaty, the Black Hills were taken from us and
given to gold prospectors. Sorry for the digression, but our history
with the United States government continues to haunt us.
In my meetings last week in Washington, D.C., I was struck by how
welcoming and attentive people were to me. While I came in peace, my
message was direct and forceful. Native Americans living in rural
America are being left behind in today's digital age.
In the 1800s, my ancestors fought for land rights. Today, our
battle is for the basic necessities of housing, food, education,
communications and Internet access. It may surprise you to learn that
the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is larger than the state of Rhode
Island. Yet we have only a few cell towers to serve the entire
reservation whereas Rhode Island has more than 1,000 cell towers.
Back home, Tribal residents suffer with no or spotty coverage on
roads and homes and huddle around an Internet Library for the only free
Wi--Fi service on our Reservation. As I walked around Congress, the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and other areas of Washington,
D.C. last week, I witnessed the digital age---people glued to their
phones and computers, presumably conducting business and communicating
with loved ones. I thought, if only our people had the same access to
information and communications, then maybe we would be able to realize
the American dream and not suffer from chronic unemployment,
devastating poverty and other third world living conditions. Surely, my
message of inclusion and access to essential broadband services would
be well received and supported by our Nation's leaders, right?
My first stop was the office of FCC Chairman Pai, who is the
Nation's top communications leader. On the FCC web page, it prominently
states ``Bridging The Digital Divide For All Americans,'' which surely
includes the Nation's first Americans, e.g., Native Americans. In fact,
Chairman Pai himself states, ``My number one priority has been closing
the digital divide and bringing the benefits of the Internet age for
all Americans.'' I applaud Chairman Pai's message of inclusion and
closing the digital divide, which is ``wide'' on many Tribal lands.
Chairman Pai has pursued an open market approach with regulatory
incentives to broadband deployment. This approach has largely worked
resulting in 93.5 percent of the population of the U.S. having access
to fixed broadband service and 99.8 percent of the population of the
U.S. having access to mobile broadband service. (See FCC 2019 Broadband
Deployment Report.) At the same time, the FCC has recognized broadband
service deployment ``on certain Tribal lands lags deployment in other
geographic areas.'' In fact, the data shows that only 45.4 percent of
the population in rural Tribal lands have access to fixed and mobile
broadband service. Can you imagine if that was the case in urban
America? It would be a national crisis and likely result in the country
spiraling into an economic crisis. Welcome to everyday life for many
people in Indian country.
I am encouraged, however, by Chairman Pai's focus on the digital
divide. I am also encouraged by the work being done on many
Reservations to bridge the digital divide. My Pine Ridge Indian
Reservation has an Internet Library and Technology Center that provides
Tribal residents with free access to computers, the Internet and
digital literacy training. This would not be possible but for the
broadband regulatory policies of Chairman Pai and the FCC, which has
allowed a company, like Native American Telecom--Pine Ridge, LLC, to
serve the broadband and digital literacy needs of residents of the Pine
Ridge Indian reservation.
I am committed to working with the FCC to ensure that ``no Indian
is left behind.'' I urge regulators and legislators to consult with
each Tribe and implement the necessary laws, rules, and policies to
bridge the digital divide in Indian Country. I also urge Federal and
state authorities to recognize that access is only one component of
solving the digital divide. Equally important is affordability and the
Lifeline program, which makes telephone and Internet service affordable
for many residents of Tribal lands.
Recently, Tribal interested parties challenged an FCC Order in
court that would have limited the availability of Lifeline service. We
won this legal challenge, but our work is not done and we need to
continue to work cooperatively to establish a Lifeline program that
works for everyone. For example, I completely agree with Chairman Pai's
efforts to eliminate fraud, waste and abuse within the Lifeline program
and establish a National Verifier to ensure that only eligible
consumers obtain valuable Lifeline discounts. But, I do not agree with
implementing new rules, processes and procedures without regard for the
impact on low--income consumers. A National Verifier that cannot verify
because of lack of access to eligibility databases may eliminate fraud,
waste and abuse but it does so at the expense of eligible residents of
Tribal lands not having access to Lifeline service. Minimum standards
for Lifeline service are important, but if the standards are too high
or too burdensome, then the result may be less Lifeline service not
better Lifeline service. Let's temporarily halt some of these Lifeline
reforms and make sure we get everything right before blindly making
changes that could harm the beneficiaries of the Lifeline program--low
income consumers.
We can solve all of these problems--access to broadband service and
affordability of service--by working together. Like my ancestors, I am
willing to take the road less traveled to ensure that Native Americans
have access to the same services available to all Americans and realize
the American dream.
Joseph RedCloud,
Executive Director,
Oceti Sakowin Tribal Utility Authority,
Member,
Oglala Sioux Tribe.
[all]