Missouri’s Broadband Plan

More than 1.26 million Missourians do not have access to high speed Internet. Simply put, that’s 20% of the state’s population. According to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), more than 1.04 million of those citizens reside in the rural parts of the state. In today’s technology-driven world, having access to broadband is more important than ever. The global economy relies on a multitude of technological platforms, many of which are powered by cloud-based systems and can only be effective when strong Internet services are present. The FCC’s National Broadband Plan emphasizes the critical importance of broadband as the ‘’foundation for economic growth, job creation, global competiveness, and a better way of life.”69% of Americans believe that people lacking broadband at home are at a major disadvantage in at least one of these five areas: getting news and information, getting health information, learning new things, accessing government services or looking for job opportunities. To effectively plan for future improvements a good baseline understanding of what is broadband and what the baseline standards include. The term broadband commonly refers to high-speed Internet and includes several high-speed transmission technologies, such as fiber, wireless, satellite, digital subscriber line and cable. Recently, the FCC established a minimum standard to be considered broadband accessible when consumers have the capabilities to receive actual download speeds of at least 25 Megabits per second (Mbps) and actual upload speeds of at least 3 Mbps.