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US Forest Service Directed to Boost Broadband on Public Lands

The federal department that oversees the U.S. Forest Service has ordered it to expand broadband service across public lands to benefit rural residents. Similar proposals have drawn heavy criticism.

a sign for the U.S. Forest Service
Shutterstock/Jer123
(TNS) — From time to time, backcountry travelers notice an unusually tall and odd-looking tree in the forest: a clumsily camouflaged communications tower.

Those towers, and more obvious collections of cell-phone and data relay stations, could get technological updates soon based on directives from Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue. The federal department that oversees the U.S. Forest Service has ordered it to expand broadband service across public lands to benefit rural residents.

“There’s been a strong push by the secretary for years on strengthening rural America, and part of that is to bring much wider broadband access,” said Deputy Chief of the Forest Service Chris French. “Specifically, we’ve been working on an initiative that aligns our processes for folks to apply for permits that’s simpler and more consistent with other agencies, so companies have a more stable environment to work in.”

French said in rural regions of the West, the Forest Service typically manages the high-elevation spots best located for communications towers. From early radio and microwave repeater facilities to modern cellular telephone relays, those are good for voice and data delivery from point to point, but not equipped to spread Wi-Fi signals across wide areas.

“And the permits we wrote 20 years ago, don’t allow for broadband,” French said. “To reapply takes years, due to lack of staffing and our own internal policies for updating permits.”

Perdue’s directive also raises the potential of placing new towers or infrastructure in remote public lands. Similar proposals to allow new or expanded communications construction in potential wilderness areas drew heavy criticism when Sen. Jon Tester considered allowing some in his Forest Jobs and Recreation Act back in 2008. French said the Forest Service’s current broadband work was aimed mainly at improving the permitting process.

However, some watching the telecommunications industry believe more construction could be involved. Geoff Feiss of the Montana Telecommunications Association said recent federal efforts such as the American Broadband Initiative which “all talk about removal of barriers and facilitating access to federal lands.”

“What it doesn’t have is money to build infrastructure,” Feiss said of the federal broadband directives. “But this could mean for a private broadband provider who needs access to federal property, the agency could grant such access much more easily.”

Last winter, the Western Governor’s Association (which includes Montana) asked the Agriculture Department to work harder on improving broadband access to rural areas. The WGA noted that more than 20% of rural Americans lack broadband coverage, compared to just 1.5% of urban residents. WGA policy adviser Kevin Moss said the governors supported the streamlined permitting process.

“And realistically speaking, there will be cases where new, long-haul cable, either fiber, copper or DSL, needs to get laid on federal lands,” Moss said. “The WGA report addresses both — expediting and streamlining permanent broadband on federal land, whether on new or existing infrastructure.”

Before any of that happens, however, both Feiss and Moss said their organizations hoped to see the federal government update its broadband coverage maps. Those maps show if counties do or don’t have enough access to Wi-Fi to qualify for federal assistance in getting better service. But they tend to overstate both the extent and quality of coverage in ways that keep rural areas from improving.

“We’re all on the same boat trying to find out who has what where,” Feiss said. “We don’t have a good grasp of that.”

©2020 Missoulian, Mont. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.