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A college professor’s two-day stop in Luverne in 2018 resulted in Rock County taking centerstage in his book, “Farm Fresh Broadband: Rural Interventions in Communications Policy.”
Christopher Ali, a media studies professor at the University of Virginia, includes the story of Rock County being an unserved internet area that becomes a leader in the state in fiber-to-the-home connectivity.
“The story of Rock County and what came to be known as the Rock County Alliance both embodies and engenders my broadband localism thesis,” Ali wrote.
“It speaks to the importance of community champions, partnerships, municipalities, cooperatives, states and fiber.”
Ali completed a two-week, 4,000-mile road trip from his home in Charlottesville, Virginia, with his dog, Tuna. He made stops in Kentucky, Missouri and Minnesota.
He stopped in Rock County in July 2018.
He details Rock County’s journey to provide fast and reliable internet access at a local level, a task the large communications companies wouldn’t tackle because the return of investment would take decades to achieve.
Current U.S. policies and grants to large telecommunications companies seem to support the rural notion that the existing dial-up or wireless services in rural areas is “just good enough” for those rural areas.
Ali begs to differ.
He wrote that partnering with a telecommunications cooperative, like Rock County did with Alliance Communications out of Garretson, is a model that should be replicated across the U.S. and that current policies should support.
“They have been more successful than the major telecommunications companies at connecting their communities, educating their populations, and keeping prices affordable,” he wrote.
The book, which features interviews with several local “broadband champions” is available at the Rock County Library.