How Rural America Has Been Affected By Its Internet Problem

It’s not a secret that rural America has an Internet problem. Multiple studies and surveys have shown the disparity between rural America and commonly known urban and suburban areas when it comes to access to high-speed Internet. There are two major reasons why this discrepancy exists.

Internet companies’ reluctance to do business in low-density areas is the first reason. From a business perspective, it is riskier to set up coverage areas where fewer people are likely to pay for Internet services. The lack of a suitable infrastructure for broadband is the second major reason why rural areas are so underserved by Internet companies. This year, the federal government has pledged $401 billion to improve rural America’s infrastructure for high-speed Internet access.

As progress begins on rural America’s broadband infrastructure, rural residents will still have to find alternative Internet solutions for neighborhoods that are not covered by most mainstream Internet companies. Outdated methods of connecting to the Internet such as dial-up and DSL are still used in rural America to make up for this difference. In fact, seemingly defunct companies such as AOL are still making a profit from doing business in rural, highly remote areas. However, companies have also devised high-tech solutions that perform better than these outdated services.

Solutions such as unlimited satellite Internet and unlimited 4G rural Internet provided by companies such as UbiFi have become popular among the populace. As a rural Internet service provider, UbiFi uses cell towers located throughout rural America to provide Internet access to rural households. UbiFi provides high-speed, high-performance Wi-Fi with low latency, no data caps, and support for multiple devices in the same household.