By CELESTE BAUMGARTNER

Ohio Correspondent

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Now it is a challenge to run a farm efficiently or be a good student without broadband internet access. It’s a quality-of-life issue, and things are changing.

Microsoft Corp. and Watch Communications, Lima, have reached an agreement to extend broadband service to underserved areas of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois over the next three years.

While 97 percent of the geography in the United States is rural, only 16.3 percent of the population lives there, so installing internet service there was not cost-effective, said  Greg Jarman, chief operating officer of Watch.

“The spectrum that is available today allows us to serve customers who can see our towers, but it does not serve customers who cannot. We knew that in the southern portions of Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, and Kentucky there’s not a solution that makes sense,” he said.

Then Microsoft developed the Airband Initiative, which partners with organizations to use TV White Space (TVWS) devices and other low-cost wireless technologies to make it easier and more affordable for people to get online, according to its website.

“They were effective in advocacy with the FCC (Federal Communications Commission), and getting the height above average terrain made this product fundamentally more functional for us. Its performance looks outstanding for those rural areas,” Jarman said.

Currently, many rural students cannot take advantage of One-to-One student access, said Frank Glaszner, Watch vice president of sales and marketing. This program provides each student with a tablet, a laptop, or some sort of other internet-connected device. Without broadband access, so many students can’t use the device at home.

“Many farmers today are being required to use smart farming technology,” Glaszner said. “The advantage of that technology is that farmers can measure moisture, insects, chemicals, gather all sorts of data that is sent back to an analyst who can be anywhere in the world.

“By having the correct amount of broadband available to them and access to this data, the analysts can respond in real time.”

Watch uses radio frequency to provide this broadband service, and it often places the equipment on grain legs and elevators.

“We’re on hundreds of grain legs elevators throughout Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois,” Jarman said. “And we transmit that to the homes in the surrounding area. If anyone has those kinds of facilities that they would make available to us, they can help us to facilitate this project.”

(If interested, email Jarman at gregjarman@watchcomm.net or call 866-586-1518.)

Last week in Washington, D.C., at a hearing of the House Subcommittee on Commodity Exchanges, Energy, and Credit, politicians were discussing broadband connectivity and the opportunities it presents for rural communities. The 2018 farm bill provides funding for rural connectivity.

“This issue is an important and timely one because it lets us shine light on those rural areas that have seen what broadband investment can do and are thriving because of their access to broadband,” said Committee Chair David Scott (D-Ga.).

Ranking Member Mike Conaway (R-Texas) agreed. Broadband access is not about convenience, it’s about being able to participate in modern life and the economy, which is rapidly moving onto the Internet, he said.

“For those who lack access, their lives are fundamentally different than those who have access,” he pointed out.