Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Jason Smith, Smart Rural Communities
Nov. 29, 2023
By Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University
It is one thing to be a rural community. It’s another to be a Smart Rural Community.
The designation -- “Smart Rural Community” -- was created by a national association to recognize rural telecommunication companies that are providing superior broadband service in their areas. And many of those are found in Kansas.
Last week we met Jason Smith, general manager and CEO of Rainbow Communications in Everest, Kansas. In 2015, Rainbow Communications was one of 10 rural telecomm companies across the nation to earn the Smart Rural Communities Showcase Award.
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The award is presented to those rural telecommunications companies that demonstrate superior broadband service in the regions they serve. The Smart Rural Communities designation has now been broadened to include any community that is served by a telecomm company that meets certain high standards.
This is a project of NTCA, the national rural broadband association. NTCA works on behalf of more than 850 small independent businesses and cooperatives that provide broadband service in rural communities. These businesses cover approximately one-third of the nation’s land mass.
NTCA’s “Smart Communities” is a designation earned by those telecomm companies that have invested in fiber broadband most aggressively and effectively to serve their residents. There are smart community categories for tribal and suburban communities, but NTCA describes the Smart Rural Communities as its “flagship brand.”
To be a Smart Community, it must be served by a company that provides extensive broadband service. “These are the cream of the crop,” Smith said.
According to the NTCA website, Smart Rural Community providers are “committed, community-based providers offering high-speed broadband to the farthest reaches of the country…fiber-based broadband providers who are committed to driving growth and creating opportunities — (for) the educators, health care providers, farmers, small business owners and other partners who help their communities thrive.”
After earning the award in 2015, Rainbow Communications has continued its effort to enhance broadband service. “Our goal is to have 100% fiber to all of our service locations by 2026,” Smith said.
In 2017, Rainbow partnered with Atchison County and the Amelia Earhart Foundation to bring broadband to a nearby industrial park and the Atchison airport. In fact, the new Amelia Earhart Airport Museum would not have been able to function without the broadband service provided by Rainbow.
“It’s not just building the network; it’s building the community that supports the network,” Smith said.
Rainbow Communications is helping customers utilize broadband services effectively. For example, the company is conducting seminars for senior citizens on how to use streaming and telemedicine.
“We are convening the (information technology) people from local businesses so we can talk about opportunities,” Smith said. Through a grant, the company provided Ipads to a local fire department.
Even Congress has appreciated these efforts. “We’ve got really good support from the federal level,” Smith said. “Senator (Jerry) Moran has been great, and Kansas is fortunate to have him.”
There are 32 independent telecomm companies in Kansas. Sixteen of those are designated as smart rural communities. Those include communities served by companies headquartered in rural places such as Wamego, population 4,841 people; and much smaller towns such as Lenora, population 207; Home, population 154; and Rush Center, population 141 people. Now, that’s rural.
Smith sees the value of such communities firsthand.
“Rural people are there for you,” he said. “When our son had knee surgery, so many people were wishing him luck and telling us they were praying for him. I value the community and knowing your neighbor. There are unique opportunities in a rural area.”
As the NTCA website states: “A Smart Community is about connection -- neighbors to friends, teachers to students, doctors to patients, new businesses to customers, and a community to the world. Connected by fiber broadband we can achieve more, together.”
For more information, go to www.ntca.org/smart-rural-community.
It’s one thing to be a rural community. It’s another to be a Smart Rural Community. We commend Jason Smith and Rainbow Communications for the broadband service that is making a difference for their region.
I think it’s a really smart idea.
Audio and text files of Kansas Profiles are available at http://www.kansasprofile.com. For more information about the Huck Boyd Institute, interested persons can visit http://www.huckboydinstitute.org.
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