NC House Reps Meet to Discuss Rural Broadband Access

North Carolina House Representative Graig Meyer and a representative from the State’s Office of Digital Infrastructure will speak tonight on the State’s effort to improve rural access to broadband internet across the state.

The meeting, which will take place at the Schley Grange Hall, will focus on the state of broadband access in rural Orange County.

Meyer claims that despite agreement on the issue across the political aisle, the General Assembly still hasn’t been able to make any leeway on legislation.

“Every rural representative in the state wants to see an expansion of rural broadband access for economic and educational reasons, and yet [Republican leadership] did nothing,” said Meyer. “I just don’t understand how there are big projects like that that everyone knows we need to take on, and there’s complete inaction.”

This problem is not unique to rural North Carolina. Rural districts across the country have seen limited access to broadband.

While 97 percent of people living in urban areas have access to high speed internet, only 65 percent of those living in rural areas have access, according to stats cited by CBS.

CBS’s Tony Dokoupil visited the optometry office of Dr. Brian Burke in rural Dawkinsville, GA to discuss the issue recently for CBS This Morning.

“People can remember back to when you would do your dial-up, and you would wait for it to spin around until you actually god a connection,” said Burke. “We face that as a daily part of doing business.”

Representatives from CenturyLink, AT&T, Verizon and Charter have been invited to join the discussion at Schley Grange Hall, but none had committed as of last week. Tuesday night’s meeting is scheduled to begin at 7:30.

NC House Reps Meet to Discuss Rural Broadband Access

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