Broadband Planning Tools for Rural Farming Communities

The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society's Broadband Breakthrough is a community engagement and broadband planning program focused on rural farming communities—because today, broadband is a necessary tool to innovate farming practices and allow for sustainable, targeted, and efficient resource use. The goal of Broadband Breakthrough is to help other rural farming communities understand the value of improved broadband access—and provide the resources, tools, and work required to get better broadband and chart a path for smart farming. The first Broadband Breakthrough cohort engaged five Illinois counties—Edgar, Hancock, McLean, Ogle, and Schuyler—to plan their broadband futures. Through our work with those counties, we learned a number of important lessons:

• First, no one will understand the connectivity needs of a community needs better than members of the community themselves. The first step for Broadband Breakthrough communities is to find and engage a team of local leaders committed to focusing on the broadband plan.
• Second, Broadband Breakthrough communities signed up to improve broadband access because they understand that without reliable connectivity, their community goals cannot be met. But that intuitive understanding is not enough; they need to quantify and detail local needs.
• Third, most of the Broadband Breakthrough communities came into the process with a vague notion of wanting better broadband. But a community broadband vision is essential.
• Fourth, it is through understanding broadband technologies, ownership models, and financing options that communities are empowered to find the right provider partners.
• Finally, there's a range of federal, state, and local broadband funding opportunities available these days. Communities must learn how to best position themselves to maximize access to those funds.

These lessons and much more about Broadband Breakthrough can be found in Broadband Breakthrough: Infrastructure Planning Tools for Rural Farming Communities. I am also happy to announce that the Illinois Soybean Association is providing funding for a continuation of the Broadband Breakthrough program in Illinois in January 2024. And a national foundation is supporting the Benton Institute to bring Broadband Breakthrough to select counties in the state of Missouri, also early in 2024.