With a family of five and a farming operation to run, Clay Scott’s home internet didn’t come close to cutting it. Pulling up a weather page in a browser could take so long it produced an error message rather than a forecast. … Like many rural Americans, Scott’s home in southwest Kansas connected to the internet over an old copper wire. A better-than-nothing update on century-old telephone technology that struggles to handle Zoom calling, video streaming or a myriad of other internet uses that people in big cities largely take for granted. … With fiber-optic cable installation costing tens of thousands of dollars per mile, it’s unlikely that big national providers will ever find a way to make money — or even avoid losses — by hooking up people like Scott in rural Kansas…. But local providers like Ulysses-based telecom cooperative Pioneer are finding ways to make the numbers work one mile at a time. Pioneer CEO Catherine Moyer said the co-op’s goal is to connect everyone within its roughly 5,000-square-mile footprint in southwest Kansas. To do that, the co-op needs to get creative, stretching the financial feasibility limits with business plans that the AT&Ts of the world might scoff at. But, she said, the fact that Pioneer isn’t AT&T is exactly what allows the co-op that flexibility.
Source: KCUR News