Rural Broadband Pays Off Only When Communities Decide, Panelists Say
Rural broadband is now table stakes for economic development, panelists said on a Broadband Breakfast Live Online panel.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 7, 2026 — Broadband has become the price of admission for a rural community rather than a growth strategy on its own, panelists said Wednesday on Broadband Breakfast Live Online.
Well-connected rural counties post 18% higher per capita income and roughly 210% higher business growth than underserved peers, according to a Center for Rural Innovation study cited by Bartlett Cleland, executive director of the Innovation Economy Alliance. Ironically, the biggest gains went to residents already there, rather than to newcomers.
A Purdue University study put full rural digital access at $65 billion a year in national benefit, and Deloitte has estimated 800,000 additional jobs, he said. But the distribution of benefits suggests a different reading of the data. "It could be that broadband is table stakes," according to Cleland.
Table stakes only pay off once households actually buy in, added Amy Huffman, policy director of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance. Huffman said that her 2011 master's thesis asked whether rural residents would get online if networks were built. Her answer – then and now – is maybe.
"People are not necessarily going to adopt a network just because it's built in their community," she said, citing affordability, skills and devices as the gating factors. The cheapest service in Western North Carolina still runs $70 a month, she said, meaning that too many households are operating on a mobile phone alone.
She asked: "Are you going to actually be able to compete in a marketplace if you don't have a device in your home that helps you build a business from your home?"
Also weighing in on the benefits for rural communities was Jonathan Chambers, co-CEO of Conexon, which works with co-ops to build fiber networks.
"The American model of a rural electric cooperative is unique in the world. That model has sustained rural communities since the late 1930s through today. It's community decision making about building infrastructure that is owned by the community and sustained by the community and in turn sustains the community itself."
Is satellite good enough for rural?
The discussion included reference to the impact that low-Earth orbit satellite internet, particularly by SpaceX’s Starlink, has had. Its impact is clearly felt in rural communities, but for now, capacity constraints means that LEO "doesn't seem to be meeting the need completely," Cleland said.
The technology may matter less than the training around it, Huffman said. "It's really essential when we think about the infrastructure and the communities across the country that we also think about the human infrastructure."
"Starlink is internet access. No question,” added Chambers. “But is it broadband? This is Broadband Breakfast, not Internet Access Breakfast."
Chambers argued that federal broadband and internet speed definitions have never been technology neutral. "They're intended to accommodate technologies that have lesser capabilities."
But his larger argument, he said, was about local authority, not particular technologies.
"When we're spending public money, let the public have a say," Chambers said. "Let these rural communities have a say as to what gets deployed there. They're the only ones whose lives and livelihoods depend on it."
He cited a strong showing for fiber. "Highest customer satisfaction for broadband in the country, bar none, are electric co-op fiber networks. [They have the] lowest rates and best service across the board."
Data center dispute
Data centers surfaced as just such a test case, and the panel split.
Cleland argued the underlying economics are widely misunderstood and pointed to counties in Northern Texas and northeastern Louisiana courting the investment. He said that data center deployment had lowered electricity costs in their communities.
Huffman countered that hyperscale operators "are benefiting tremendously by everyday people being online, but they're not contributing to people getting online."
She added: "When you are responsible and accountable to your neighbor, you're going to treat your neighbor well."
