Ben Kron, Evansville, Ind., can pull in drone images quickly in his office in the farm shop. In fact, with 1-gig fiber internet service, he can do just about anything he needs to do for his operation.

“It wasn’t always this way,” explains his dad, Randy, who is president of Indiana Farm Bureau. “Until now, Ben probably spent more time watching the little whirling disk spin on the computer screen than anything else. He could go to our other location 20 miles west and access high-speed internet, even though it was much farther from town. But we didn’t have it here.”

That all changed when AT&T and Vanderburgh County, Ind., entered a public-private agreement to serve all unincorporated parts of Vanderburgh County with high-speed, fiber-based internet service. A press conference was held in fall 2022 to kick off the project. In November 2023, completion was celebrated with a press conference in Kron’s shop.

In the meantime, AT&T ran fiber to 20,000 customers during the $39.6 million project. Using federal funds, the county contributed $9.9 million, and AT&T covered the rest. From signing the contract to extending fiber access to the last customer, the project took two years.

Repeat the effort

“This was a tremendous example of public and private cooperation to serve rural areas,” Kron says. “It should be a model for repeating this success elsewhere, whether with AT&T or some other provider. The challenge now is to repeat this success 91 more times in Indiana. Every county needs access to high-speed internet, like is provided with fiber service.”

In fact, Kron says Indiana Farm Bureau delegates at policy sessions this fall made sustaining rural viability one of their key policy strategies for 2024. “Improving access to high-speed internet in every county is an important part of maintaining rural viability,” he says.

“We’ve been making progress statewide, but it’s going slower than we would like in some cases,” Kron adds. “I am hopeful more communities will attempt to do what the Vanderburgh County commissioners did here. It takes planning and forethought to come up with the money and find a suitable partner to make it work.”

Cover everyone

One potential pitfall is not watching and regulating companies close enough when officials shop for an internet partner, Kron says.

“Guard against allowing them to cherry-pick only areas with denser populations when they’re bidding on a project,” he explains. “Some companies want to go where they can get more revenue and then leave the rest. That’s not helpful for farmers who need high-speed internet as much or more so than anyone else. Fortunately, AT&T didn’t do that here. They ran fiber to all locations.”

AT&T officials report that they are working with Lawrence County, Boonville, Martinsville and Delaware County on public-private collaborations to deliver fiber service to those communities. Kron notes there are other companies besides AT&T also working with communities in Indiana.

“We’re making progress, but we need to continue emphasizing the need,” Kron says. “High-speed internet is as essential for farmers and rural communities as it is for anyone else.”