Brandon Presley, public service commissioner for the Northern District of Mississippi, had a small but enthusiastic crowd last week when he spoke to the membership of the Little Garden Club in the parlor of First United Methodist Church.
Presley preached the importance of expanding broadband internet access to Kosciusko, Attala County, and the rest of the state. Although state-wide broadband availability has been a desire for quite some time, he said, the pandemic brought the issue to the forefront as a need for the state’s future — and a matter of equity for its residents.
“That (the pandemic) showed us very clearly that we have to get this problem fixed. Children and families and businesses and churches and people had to immediately flip from going into an office going into a classroom to doing it online. And what it exposed for us over these last two years has been really the gaps in Mississippi that existed for internet service,” he told the group. “We’ve been working on this for several years prior to the pandemic. My chief priority as commissioner has been that we get every home in Mississippi connected to high-speed internet services that are affordable, reliable and meet the needs of today and for the future.”
Presley said that lack of broadband internet access has most affected rural areas like Attala County, causing special challenges for families with children.
“What we saw in the past two years were families having to go to McDonald's, sit in the parking lot to do homework. That is a real-life fact for so many of our families in Mississippi. Or go to the library…. I would see people, the whole parking lot filled up with cars, and people sitting there using the free Wifi for kids to do homework.”
Presley said that while the state has put money into expanding broadband, some areas have been left out because companies have not been willing to make the necessary investment in them.
Last year, the commissioner noted, legislation was passed allowing companies like Entergy — which has a substation east of Kosciusko — to lease out extra fiber optic capacity to a company or agency to provide internet service to the city and county.
Since private companies have not shown enthusiasm for taking that on, Presley said, he is now hoping the state legislature will this year pass a law that would allow government agencies like Kosciusko Water & Light to step in to provide that service instead of relying on a private company.
“It would allow it if the City of Kosciusko wanted to provide broadband service, just like they provide you electricity and water,” he said. “We should have local control. Local people should be able to control whether or not they want their city to provide broadband…. Companies like AT&T and others, they have had a decade to come out and serve rural Mississippi and they refused to do it. They have just refused to do it. And so, we've got to find another way around that.”
Presley then said that lack of broadband internet isn’t the only thing holding Attala County back.
“…What is the future of Attala County if you don't have internet service to every home, and you don't have a four-lane highway?” he said. “Hey, now think about that just a minute. Let that sink in. If you don't have a four-lane road, and you don't have access to broadband for everybody, nobody in the world can expect Attala County and Kosciusko to compete. You can't do it.”
Presley laid the blame for lack of four-lane access into Attala County firmly at the feet of Governor Tate Reeves.
“I was so disappointed when the governor vetoed the bill that (State Rep.) Jason White got passed to put a four-lane road. That got vetoed for no reason but politics. That's it,” he said.
The commissioner said he hopes officials and private businesses will start thinking more about what is good for the people, including healthcare.
“It's about education — making sure that every child, parent, grandparent has access to go out to what is actually going on the education world. It's about health care, and mental health care. It's about compassion and giving our people the chance to have the basic tools they need to succeed,” he said.
And party politics, he said, should be left out of the decision-making equation.
“…The good for the people in this state is not Republican or a Democratic…. We should try to find good ideas that make a difference in the everyday life of our citizens,” Presley said. “We either recognize that and figure out how we're going to fix it as a state, or we're going to have to sit back and do what we've done too many times in Mississippi and just let the whole world pass us by — just pass us by — and we can't afford that.”
To see Presley's full remarks, view the video below:
.
