We all know how critical broadband is to modern life. From telehealth to education, a reliable broadband connection is no longer optional.

Many small broadband providers have the unique challenge of connecting rural customers over vast distances, overcoming hurdles not faced by their urban counterparts such as high costs for deployment and low population densities. Wilson

Communications is one such rural provider, with a service area expanding across 1,000 square miles of North-Central Kansas. The company, like many in Kansas, has invested in fiber optic cable to every home, farm, ranch, church, business, school, and library throughout its service area, and has utilized USDA’s Rural Utilities Service and the FCC’s Universal Service Fund in order to accomplish this goal.

For years, Congress has been working with telecommunications providers, both large and small, to close the digital divide. Despite those efforts, there are still many in rural America that lack access to a reliable and affordable internet connection.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted this challenge, but also highlighted the ways in which our rural internet providers have worked to address not only rural broadband deployment in general, but also the increased connectivity needs brought on by the current public health crisis.

A reliable internet connection has become an essential tool for many health care providers, especially in rural communities. It allows providers to communicate with other physicians and technicians, and even provide continued care to patients via telehealth services.

Doctors in remote settings can send things like x-rays and other important data for review by radiologists in major cities, allowing quick access to specialists via the internet.

Similarly, the pandemic forced students across Kansas to become reliant on broadband as they transitioned their studies online.

In hard-to-connect areas, internet service providers like Wilson immediately reached out to the schools they serve in order to find ways to connect students if they lack a broadband connection at home.

As integral parts of the community, rural internet service providers understand the challenges facing broadband deployment better than politicians in Washington, which is why they are an important ally as we work to craft new legislation aimed at closing the digital divide.

From further pandemic response efforts to additional initiatives aimed at improving broadband mapping or funding support programs, those closest to these issues will have the best ideas on how to solve these problems.

Despite the progress we’ve made, there’s still much more work that needs to be done.

Whether you live on a farm in Kansas or a high-rise in Chicago, every American deserves worldclass broadband at an affordable price. Broadband is just as important as any other infrastructure program today, and we need to work together to get the job done.

Roger Marshall is a Great Bend physician who represents the First District of Kansas in Congress. Brian Boisvert is vice president of external relations for Wilson Communications.