A few generations back, new technology on the farm meant replacing your mule team with a tractor. Today it means replacing dial-up Internet service or glacially slow broadband with broadband connections at faster speeds that can accommodate the technologies needed for running a farm. Too often, of course, broadband infrastructure is either non-existent in rural areas or inadequate to the speeds and versatility agribusiness needs.
Ohio cannot afford to have its agricultural producers and processors caught on the wrong side of the digital divide. Agriculture is Ohio’s leading industry, producing $98 billion a year in revenue and employing one out of every seven Ohio residents. Our 1,100 food processing operations support a payroll of approximately 60,000 people. Agribusiness is also a growth industry,which is a bright spot in our nation’s current, but slow moving, economic recovery.
Our agricultural industry also makes Ohio a major player in international markets. The value of agricultural exports from Ohio grew from $1.579 billion in 2005 to $2.670 billion in 2009, according to the most recent figures available from USDA. And in the 2010 fiscal year USDA rankings of exports by state, Ohio made the Top 10 list in four categories: soybeans, feed grains, dairy, and tobacco.
All of this demonstrates that agribusiness is not only a major industry for Ohio; it’s an industry that competes in complex markets around the world. As in virtually every other leading industry, staying competitive in the global agriculture market requires access to competitive broadband technology to keep up to speed with new technologies. Broadband is essential for efficient operations of modern farms and it is a vital tool for marketing what our farms produce.
The good news is that Ohio agribusiness and the rest of rural America has an opportunity to take a short cut, of sorts, to reach the kind of broadband accessibility we need. It comes through the proposed merger of wireless carriers T-Mobile and AT&T Wireless.
If the merger is approved by federal regulators in Washington, AT&T has committed to use the combined spectrum of the two companies to deliver advanced wireless broadband connectivity to almost 97 percent of the country’s population. This would mean the farms, families and businesses of rural areas around our country would have the ability to access high-speed broadband service on par with almost any large city’s connection speed.
Specifically, AT&T would deplot, nationwide, 4G LTE broadband. This is the most advanced generation of wireless technology. It performs at speeds competitive with the best wire-based systems. Because 4G LTE is wireless it doesn't involve stringing miles of wire and cable through empty pastures in order to hook up with isolated farm houses. That alone makes it practical for serving rural America and agribusinesses tied to those areas.
AT&T is willing to invest $8 billion to ensure the expansion of connectivity if the merger is approved. Given the struggling national economy, it could be years before the federal or state government might be able to invest public funds on that scale to pledge access to high-performance broadband.
The broadband technology at the heart of the merger has the definite possibility of helping to keep Ohio agribusiness and products competitive in the global marketplace. It’s an opportunity we shouldn’t let slip away.