Millions of Americans—many of them in rural areas—lack access to broadband service. To address this challenge, some electric cooperatives are offering customers high-speed internet in addition to their electric services. Electrical cooperatives are private, nonprofit organizations that provide electricity to customers in their service areas. They are customer-owned and operate on a cost-of-service basis, returning extra profits as dividends to members or to be invested in infrastructure.
Electric cooperatives’ expansion into today’s broadband market mirrors their entrance into the initial utilities market in the 1930s. At that time, only about 10% of rural America was electrified because deploying the needed infrastructure to rural areas was expensive and population densities were low. For utility companies, typically privately or municipally owned at the time, rural areas were less profitable to serve than urban ones.
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