Cramer Praises Midco Initiatives At Rural Broadband Caucus Briefing Today

Press Release

Congressman Kevin Cramer delivered an opening statement at a briefing of the Congressional Rural Broadband Caucus today, which focused on strengthening rural economics through broadband deployment.

Cramer welcomed one of the participants, Justin Forde of Fargo, who is director of public affairs at Midco, a regional provider of cable television, Internet and telephone service to North Dakota, South Dakota, and several communities in Minnesota and Wisconsin. He talked about the gigabit Internet service initiative Midco is deploying to every community it serves, regardless of population, throughout North Dakota.

"Every day, Midco and many other rural telcos are working tirelessly to deploy lightning-fast broadband to their customers," said Cramer. "They understand that high-speed Internet is essential to living in rural America in the 21st century."

Cramer compared the importance of broadband today to the development of the railroad and highway systems of the past that brought new opportunities to rural America. "With ongoing discussions in Washington on how to decrease the "digital divide,' our Caucus can provide insight into how we can enact more meaningful broadband policy for rural America in the future."

In February, Cramer, along with Rep. Bob Latta (R-OH), Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI), and Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT), founded the 34-member bipartisan Rural Broadband Caucus. They now co-chair the group, whose purpose is to facilitate discussion, educate Members of Congress and staff, and develop policy solutions to the digital divide that exists in rural America.

As part of this divide between urban and rural America, over half of all rural Americans lack access to this basic standard of broadband service. In 2015, the FCC updated its broadband benchmark speeds to 25 megabits per second (Mbps) for downloads and 3 Mbps for uploads. According to the FCC, using this updated benchmark, the 2015 report finds that 55 million Americans -- 17 percent of the population -- lack access to advanced broadband.

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