Disconnected. Left Behind: The Hidden Costs of Rural Broadband Gaps in America’s Heartland and local solutions.

In this episode, we illustrate the often eye-opening issues facing those without
broadband connectivity and the work to get communities better connected.

Bringing every American broadband access is the moonshot challenge of this generation.

It's the focus of our American Connection Project. As we hear from our guests,
connectivity is not a luxury, but a necessity for education, health care, modern food production, and economic growth.

Guests are Frontier Cooperative CEO and farmer, Jeremy Wilhelm from Lincoln,
Nebraska. And Ken Edwards, a Nebraska native, and an American Connection Corps Fellow.

To learn more go to Americanconnectionproject.com

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"Something Greater" will no longer be searchable content effective May 2022. 

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Transcript

 It is kind of fun to be living. Did I lose this connection? I think we lost Ken. I a real time example of, uh, of the necessity of, uh, of internet. Oh, no. Right. As we're talking about data mapping, we lost Ken's, um, connection. Again, my apologies. This is really frustrating. But

before we dive in, a quick thanks to all of our partners. None of this work would be possible without each one of them. Microsoft Tractor Supply Company, four H Heartland Forward, Lead for America, and of course our local farm cooperatives scattered throughout the country. Thank you.


Never before have we been so connected and never before has it been so imperative for us to be connected, but for some connection is out of reach or just spotty at best. Did you know one in four Americans do not have reliable broadband? And while the FCC says 14 million households don't have access, 11 million of those are in rural areas.

This is about a lifeline to doctors employment and economic opportunity for our business. It's absolutely critical as we work to support and drive adoption of digital tools that help support a more efficient, sustainable, and profitable agricultural value chain for the success of individuals, families, small businesses and more, and rural, urban, or somewhere in between.

Broadband connectivity is a key component to success for families and communities. For prosperity and for the future of our cooperative and our country. This is about the kids in our local communities having the ability to work on homework online at home rather than in a vehicle in a parking lot 20 miles down the road.

That's not an exaggeration. Listen to one of our farmer members, pat Luman on a previous episode. So we have a new concept in, in one of our rural school districts. They have, uh, hotspots on all of their school buses. At the end of the day, the buses are strategically parked throughout the district so that if the student needs to do their homework, maybe mom or dad, or maybe they could ride their bike down close to where, where the school bus is.

To actually do their homework. Huh? But that's how desperate we are for, yeah, for the broadband capability in certain parts of our rural areas, we know it may not be your reality, but it is the reality of millions. And that's why Land O'Lakes started the American Connection Project a few years ago in support of vibrant rural communities through raising awareness.

Advocating for meaningful policy reform and taking decisive action to support and to provide connectivity options where they were needed most. Our guests today are Frontier Cooperative, CEO and Farmer Jeremy Wilhelm from Lincoln, Nebraska Frontier Cooperative, a Land O'Lakes Ag retail member. Owner has been out ahead in efforts to help bring better connectivity to their community, and we have Ken Edwards, an American Connection Corps fellow, and also a Nebraska native.

The American Connection Corps is an effort we launched in 2021 as a pillar of a CP. It's a new boots on the ground effort to boost local internet connectivity led in conjunction with Lead For America. It's funded through the support of 20 partners, including organizations like Nebraska based schooler, nonprofit, Heartland Forward, and so many others.

Well, thank you both for, um, agreeing to talk with us. I'm so excited to have this conversation. Uh, American Connection Project is something that's near and dear to my heart, and, um, I really wanna make sure that, uh, we give a good, uh. A good picture, a visual picture to our, our listeners today. So, um, welcome to both of you.

Um, I wanna kind of start with community and, um, both of you are in, uh, extremely important. Um. Close communities and I, I would like our listeners to be able to, to picture where you are. So, you know, Ken, um, let me start with you. Uh, you're from Table Rock, Nebraska. So paint me a picture. Um, how, is it rural?

Is it, is it cold? Is it warm? You know, tell me about it. Well, so Taylor Rock is a, it's a small town. We got about 230 people. We have a really nice downtown with all the old buildings and whatnot. Um, kind of the going joker around there is that we're in the middle of everything but next to nothing. This is about, you know, about a two, one to two hour drive to like Lincoln, Omaha, and Kansas City.

Right. Um, okay. It's very close knit. It's nice. Just settled. Settled in between the bluffs. It's, it's nice. I really enjoy it. Tell me who do you, uh, who do you cheer for when you're right in the middle of everything? Is that like a, we're coming up on Super Bowl here. Is that like a Kansas City Chiefs town or, or, there's a lot of Chiefs fans, but I have an affinity towards the Packers.

Um, unfortunately it didn't go well this year. Oh no. But everybody rallies behind the Huskers, even though it's a lot of heartbreaking. But we're, we're, we're still passionate. They'll come back that when you have a passionate fan base like that, it's just a matter of time. Yeah. How about you? Uh, how about you Jeremy Huskers fan?

Tell me, uh, tell me about your community. Yeah, so I live in Syracuse, Nebraska, which is about a half hour outside of Lincoln and Omaha, both. And, uh, it's uh, way bigger than Table Rock. We've got 2,500 people there. Yes. Uh, but it's your typical small town where you know everybody and everybody knows you.

Now tell me, um, as I, I would love for our listeners to get an idea of the Frontier Cooperative and the, and the business itself. So tell me a little bit about the business and how that fits into the community. Yeah, so Frontier Cooperative is your typical full service cooperative. We handle grain, agronomy, energy, and feed.

Uh, we're, we've, we're in 60 communities across eastern Nebraska. And, uh, you know, there's a good chance if there's not a school or, um, in the community that we're, we're probably gonna be the largest employer in the, in the communities that we serve. And so we've got about 6,000 farmer owners as a cooperative and about 425 employees that live in and amongst the communities that we serve.

Oh, really good size organization. Yeah. Now, um, for, for both of you, I guess I, we're here to talk about, um, sort of, uh, base services, I think in your communities. And, you know, I'm thinking about, um, day-to-day life, uh, groceries, doctors, um, jobs. Um, when you think about a, as we all really have. More recently, the kinds of services you need to, um, to live day to day life to raise your family, to have a healthy community.

Um, I, and maybe we can start with you, Ken. Uh, since you're a, a smaller community, what is it like to get those services? Um, you gotta be willing to drive a little bit. Uh, yeah. You know, it's, and, but you know, you think about, we always like our, our travel distance. We always talk about it in, in minutes, not necessarily miles.

So it takes, like, takes less than 10 minutes to get to the nearest hospital, 10 minutes to get to groceries. Um, you know, it's, it's, it's tough sometimes, like, 'cause you know, if you wanna go shopping like for different things, like you kinda have to get outside of table rock a little bit. Um, but it's not like, if you put it in the perspective of like, in a city, if you're driving from one side of the city, like South Lincoln to North Lincoln, it's a good 30 minutes, you know, and like with a, within a 30 minute drive, we can get, you know, to a Walmart, like all, all those, uh, fancy things.

But, um, it is just, it is just a change. Like you just have to be willing to commute a little bit, but it's not too bad. Okay. Okay. And how does that, um, play, uh, where you are, Jeremy? It's, it is pretty similar. We always say that we've got one of everything that we need. Um, but you, you might not get a choice.

And so, yeah. Uh, you know, we've got a grocery store, a small grocery store, a post office. We've got, you know, a hospital in town. So you have the things that you need. They may not have a lot of choices. Okay. I have the things that you need though, so when we think about, um, having the things we need within, you know, maybe 30 minutes in your case, Ken, and, and a little closer maybe in yours, Jeremy, I would think that access to technology might be something that, uh, expands options, you know, can, can for you and, and Jeremy, maybe a little bit more choice, um, certainly for you.

So let's, can we spend a little bit of time talking about the internet? Um, absolutely. You know. All right. Let's, let's, let's start there, right, Ken, you're, you know, you're, you're smiling here on this. Um, when it comes to technology itself and in the internet, do you ever feel, um, behind or lagging or, um, do you feel like you get everything you need in from that perspective?

I would say there's, there's definitely room for improvement and it's, it's gotten better in recent years. Um, but we're, we're still way behind, you know, the cities in terms of speeds and affordability and whatnot. Um, and, you know, technology in general, it's transformational for rural communities. Um, because it opens up the door to a lot of different kinds of services.

Like you. I mean, you can go to a doctor's visit on your phone, you can access mental health providers. Um, you know, and then you got things like Amazon and. All those, all those different deals that do make it easier. Um, but there's still a lot of, there's still a lot of communities and, and you know, obviously farms that aren't connected to the, to the internet, that, or they have very slow speeds.

Um, and in some cases that people, uh, get slower speeds than what they're paying for pretty consistently. So those are, those are some of the challenges that we're going against, but there's definitely opportunity. Um, you know, and I think one of the big pushes that we're gonna see, especially coming outta the pandemic is the work from home.

Um, because like we can create jobs in these small towns by not having like necessarily a physical business that can work from home, earn an income, and, you know, live, live relatively, uh, I'm not gonna say cheap, but affordable. Um, 'cause housing's so much cheaper in small towns. So being able to provide high speed, affordable internet, I think is gonna be the key to our future.

Well, interesting. The key to the future, I, I, you know, I was gonna follow up and ask about, uh, how the pandemic and COVID might have, um, changed your feelings around the internet, but, but certainly, um, that in remote work, um, that has certainly made a, a. And impact. And, um, Jeremy, from, from your perspective, is it, uh, is it a bandwidth issue as well?

I, you know, as Ken was talking, it used to be we were just trying to get our, uh, our, our farms to work, um, and tie into technology there. Now maybe it's a bandwidth issue 'cause you've got grandma at home trying to see the doctor and you know, your kid's trying to do homework and, um, I'm wondering if that has.

Has changed the, uh, the intensity of the need. A Absolutely. And we saw it, you know, even with some of our employees, right, when they were working all day long, uh, come home at night, try to do homework with their kids and, you know, the speed during the day was not an issue, but when everybody was at home at night working it, it really drug the speed down to a just a snail's pace.

It, it, it happens at home. It happens on the farm. I mean, more and more the technology that we're providing and helping our farmers, our growers, uh, utilize, it's, it's being done on the iPhone and, and it needs some speed to download some of the data that we're trying to download. I talk a little bit more about that, Jeremy.

I, I know that you've been in, um. Ag your whole life. And in the past, let's say even in the last five years, how has technology changed? I, I love the example of where we're doing everything on the, on your phone. Um, but what are some other examples of where you've seen, um, where you've seen it really change in ag specifically?

Yeah. I think just the, the information that we're collecting from the field, uh, from the combine, from the tractor and the planter. Um, and the need to get that information real time, uh, coming out of a sprayer. So when that field's being done sprayed, uh, we're sending a text message, uh, to the farmer saying, Hey, your field has been sprayed, and emailing out the as applied data, uh, to them as they get it.

And so it's real time, it's live. Um, it, it fits into our dispatching and, um, it's like having inventory live. Uh, we can't. We can't take inventory once a month. Um, we gotta kind of know where we're at any given day. Yeah. Well, and everything, uh, everything speeds up when you're trying to do real time. I Now, Ken, you're a little younger than Jeremy.

I, I, I'm just gonna point that out. I, I know that might not be popular, but I'm just gonna point it out a little bit. Um, how has technology or or lack of technology kind of impacted you and, and your peers as, um, as you've entered the workforce? Well, I mean this, this is possible now that, that we're doing that, you know, we're, we're all meeting in a, a video space, um, talking over the phones and whatnot and say that that's.

Kind of new within the last 10 years. Um, it's, it's changing. You, you, I have, I have friends that are in data mapping. I have friends that are in like, analytics and a lot of these jobs didn't really exist, you know, when, when we're growing up. So it's, it's kind of fun to be living. I think we lost Ken, I a real time example of, uh, of the necessity of, uh, of internet.

Alright. This isn't something we planned. We didn't cut Ken's connection for dramatic effect. It's just part of the reality that our farmers and folks in rural communities deal with every day. They roll with it. So we did too. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Jeremy, let's, uh, let's keep talking as Ken tries to reestablish, uh, his connection there and, and let's.

Talk a little bit more about, um, about the effect of the pandemic and, you know, what we thought was something that was gonna be a, a couple of weeks ended up being a couple of years. It really kinda showed us, um, that broadband is really the door to the world. Has that been a conversation in your town?

Has it, um. You know, when you're out, out at the coffee shops are, are people talking about connectivity and how we can, uh, hey, how it's a necessity of life and how we can kind of pull it back in there? Yeah. It really is, uh, I think the pandemic, you know, taught people how to, you know, force people to do some more things online.

Um, yeah. Whether it was. Buying groceries or buying things from, from the store to, uh, we launched a, an app that we could sign grain contracts on, on their iPhone. And in the first six months, we had over 2000 grain contracts signed with their iPhones, which we would've never dreamt that that would've picked up that kind of pace, but I think it was partially due to the pandemic, right.

Weren't coming into the office. And um, so it is, I think it's changed a lot since the pandemic started. Yeah. Would you, would you say it's increased productivity in some ways? Absolutely. I mean, you think about a green contract as a simple example. In the past we would've written that up, printed it out.

Mailed it to that producer with a envelope for him to mail it back and sign. And generally we got about 50% response rates, so you'd have to follow up and send it again, and yeah, so it just, it's increased productivity significantly. The American Connection Project or a CP, as we sometimes call it, represents roughly 200 companies and organizations working to bring high speed internet access.

To every corner of America, there's one guiding principle. Internet access is not a luxury. It is a lifeline in part due to our collective efforts. Through the American Connection Project Policy Coalition, Congress recently passed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that provided funding for critical infrastructure investments across the nation.

Now this law delivers a historic $65 billion investment in broadband initiatives that will help to close the digital divide. This is a great step, but this is not a one size fits all issue. It also takes humans local boots on the ground in communities across the country. Rural communities often lack the capacity to leverage available, but sometimes out of reach resources to build that capacity.

We've launched the American Connection Corps with 50 fellows like Ken deployed to local communities working to better connect and equip their hometowns for our increasingly digital economy. To solve big problems. The American Connection Project's ability to spark action is a testament to the power of cooperation.

It provides a blueprint for building and maintaining the relationships necessary to address any number of issues that impact our communities. Listeners, it's. Interesting. We lost Ken for, um, for a few moments on our, uh, on our connection here and now we've got him back. Ken, we were, uh, continuing to kind of talk about, uh, connectivity and then you were, you were gone and back.

Yeah. Uh, yeah, as fate would have it, uh, spotty internet connection, um. What's funny is that we, like in our office, we have an internet service provider, but we don't have fiber like in our, in our building yet. It's supposed to be coming in March. We're very excited about that. There you go. But yeah, it's so, I, my apologies, but yeah, that's, so this is a, a good example of why we need better internet, but yeah.

Well. I, I am telling you what it's, there is nothing better than, um, than a real time, uh, example of, um, you know, the, the need for, um, connectivity. I, and, and now that I've got you back, Ken, um. You are a fellow with the American Connection Corps. So, um, tell me a little bit about, uh, about that program, if you would.

Um, I, I know as a, as a Land O'Lakes employee, I know a little bit about it, but I'd love to hear from your, um, perspective what that program is and, um, how your experience has been. Um, well first of all, thanks to Land O'Lakes for being a sponsor. We, we really appreciate it 'cause you make this program possible.

Um, and it's, it's coming at a good time. Um, obviously with all the, the money coming down from the government and, you know, people seeing the need for, you know, broadband expansion, um, it's. I guess the best way to put it is that these kinds of jobs didn't exist before this program. I mean, if you wanted to work in rural development, which is, that's my goal.

Um. You had to work for a development district and it was pretty, you know, straightforward, just working on grants all the time with the American Connection Corps. We're getting out into the community. Um, a lot of us were just finishing up our listening tours. We're going around the community and hearing what people want.

Um, actually tonight in, uh, Auburn here we have a community conversation where we're trying to figure out the process going forward for the town. And uh, and it's really exciting seeing people have the buy-in, um, and. But like a lot of our time is spent going out, talking to people, talking to businesses, um, a lot of data mapping, a lot of speed testing.

Yeah. Um, and it's, it, it's exciting. Um. I, I never would've guessed that like, coming outta college, this is what I would be doing, but I'm, I'm so thankful for it. And I've even coming up on, I think it's, what, six, six months, seven months? Something like that. Yeah. About that. And we've got a, we've got a lot going and it's, it's hard to believe.

We, we have about a year and a half left and it's still feels like there's so much left to do and it's exciting. Like there's never not a dull day. Like I'd, I'd highly encourage anybody that wants to help their small town to. To join in. Um, it's, yeah, it's really, really enjoy it and really thankful that, that it's here.

Have you done, uh, meetings like this before, um, to date or is this your first one today? Like in terms of. Like, like this. Oh, the listing session and Yeah. You've done this? Yeah. Oh yeah. This is, so this is our fifth one. Um, and we're kind of going through the, we're going through the visioning process right now.

So just trying to figure out our action steps of how we're gonna impact business and whatnot. So tell me, is there, in, in the five that you've had, what's the one or two things you've heard over and over? Broadband. People want better internet. And uh, like things like our downtown revitalization, like just trying to find different ways.

You know, we have a lot of empty buildings in small town America. Like it's, it is just unfortunate, but it's a reality. And so we're trying to find different ways that we can attract entrepreneurs, that we can attract young families, um, solve the housing issue. Nebraska, we have one, we have the lowest unemployment in the country, but we have so many open jobs, so it's not, it's not that yet.

It's not that people aren't working, it's that we need more people. Yeah, so also check out Nebraska. It's a beautiful place. Hashtag Nebraska. Yeah. Well, I'll, I will tell you our, um, we're, we're so, um, excited about what you and the other, uh, a, c, C fellows are doing. We've got, um. Lots of partners that are, uh, interested in contributing to that program.

And, uh, we're just, we're just so proud of all the work that you guys are, are doing. Um, now Jeremy, we're just getting started. Just getting started. All right. Yeah. And recruiting new, uh, new Nebraska residents. Yes, always. Um, now Jeremy, you tell, tell me, um, it's, I can picture these meetings. That, um, that Ken's going into and, and having folks say over and over that broadband is something that they really need to, um, enable getting more people to interested to, to come and, um, raise their families there.

Um. You guys are, um, getting involved in it in a little bit different way while I Frontier's involved across the board. But, um, tell me specifically kind of about the grain facilities and how are you using them to get connected? Well, I think we, you know, we realized a couple years ago that we've got these drain facilities that sit, you know, stand 120 to 150 feet in the air.

That, you know, are, have historically been used for maybe some cell phone towers, uh, maybe to be a, you know, tornado fire, um, sounding, you know, up there and, and realize really, so the communities put fire all alarm up on the, uh, top of the grain facilities. They do. And we realized that height was useful and beneficial for being able to.

Broaden the scope of high speed internet and, and increase the radius. And so our towers were there. We said, why not utilize 'em? Why not benefit the community? And so now we're putting up high speed internet on there, and we can generally get, depending on the topography of five to 10 mile radius from our communities with pretty high speed, low cost internet.

That's fantastic. Now, is this, um, I know a little bit about that, uh, program and I know we, um, were involved with, uh, next Link and Microsoft. Um, was this, uh, when you were thinking about this and proposing it certainly with, with all of us, um, was it something you jumped on right away or it was, or was it something you had to kind of think about of it?

No, we didn't have to think about it at all. It was a no brainer. Right. Uh, for us to, uh, be able to. Again, use the scale, the height, and partner with, like I said, Microsoft Next Link and Land O'Lakes to bring this to the communities. And it was, it was a very easy decision. Um, it's, it's kind of a win-win. Um, absolutely.

It seems like win, win, win, win, win. Right, win for the community. Win for the co-op, win for, um, win for all of us. Um. Okay, so if we get, uh, our, our connectivity more solid, um, it seems like so much of what, uh, we do in ag goes back to data and improving our, our data and, um. Improving productivity, profitability, all of those things.

Um, now, Ken, you've said a couple of times in our conversation you referred to data mapping. Mm-hmm. And I, you know, anytime they, I hear the word data, my, my antenna go up. Um, tell me about. Data mapping. I know you did a project recently, um, and, and we're using that kind of information. Can you give us a little bit more, um, information on what that is and how that plays in?

So, um, we basically to demonstrate the need for broadband expansion, we had to identify unserved and underserved areas. Um, so we have two fellows that are working with the Southeast Nebraska Development District that this is, this is what they do all day, every day. And so they like, so in terms of Nemaha, Nemaha County where I'm at, um, we identified an area that was un like there.

It was 158 houses that we crossed and we received a million dollars in grant funding. And which was challenged by the, the existing, uh, provider in the area that had the exchange district. Well, oh no. Right. As we're talking about data mapping, we lost Ken's, um, connection again. Um, so we're gonna, uh, we're gonna hold on here for a minute.

I imagine Ken's gonna back out and come back in as he did before. Jeremy, can I, can I ask you about, um, cooperatives themselves? Can you talk about how cooperatives are kind of an economic driver for rural communities? I, I, you've talked about how they've, you know, been central, but, um, at the beginning of our conversation, but how do they play within the economy?

Oh, and I see Ken's come back, so we'll come back to you, Ken, in a minute, but we're gonna talk economy with Jeremy for just a minute. Yeah, I think, uh, you know, our cooperative was started in 1915 and it was a small group of farmers that came together to do some things. Specifically around coal and wheat, um, coal for heating houses that they couldn't do by themselves.

And fundamentally, that's what we're still doing today, right? We're building rail facilities that serve the, the local producers, uh, that they couldn't do themselves, but collectively together as a group we can. And so it's, what it's allowing us to do is access markets that they couldn't access before, whether it was, um, crop nutrients that they're receiving or.

Shipping their grain, not only across the country, but overseas. And that it, you know, adding since per bushel back in basis is, is a huge thing for the communities. And we, we, you know, we already talked about, you know, just the employment aspects of the cooperative and the communities. Sure. Um, it's a huge economic driver in these small towns.

So do you, do you kind of see, um, broadband as the, uh, excuse me, play on words, but as the next frontier for you guys? You know, it is certainly a part of it, right? And, and data and collecting data is so huge in today's agricultural world and gonna become even greater with the carbon markets and harvesting, you know, carbon in the soil.

And that all requires a lot of data to be gathered. Yeah. Well, and you have to, I, I see Ken's back on our, uh, our connectivity here. Um, we're talking about two different datas in some ways, right? Jeremy's talking about the data that farmers are, um, requiring and providing. Um, Ken, you were talking about, uh, data mapping.

You wanna mm-hmm. Pick that up just again for a minute. Yeah. Um, which again, my apologies, this is really frustrating, but, but, uh, but okay, so, so when we were doing our broadband expansion project, um, the, we had to demonstrate a need, um, of unserved and underserved areas. Um, so we went into those communities, went door to door and they were asking people, Hey, you wanna check your internet speed?

Um, they would do it a couple times during the day. To see if they're getting what they were paying for. Um, 'cause we've seen time and time again across the state and it's, it's happening across the country where internet service providers, they would do just enough to get the funding to, um, expand into an area and then that's it.

Then they had no more incentive to build out. And so with the project that we were doing in Yma County, um, not only did it create a redundancy network. It passed 158 houses, and which this, this project was challenged by the, the existing provider. And so we had to prove that people weren't getting the speeds that they're paying for.

And so, I mean, we collected thousands of tests and we were awarded because the, the state agreed that we were underserved. Um, wow. And so that, it's, it's exciting, but this, this kind of mapping's happened all over the country and you, you see it time and time again. Um, but it's kind of a, it's a tool for the toolbox that's demonstrating the need, or, you know, in some cases it's like, yeah, you know, this is, this area is adequately served.

So it's kind of both sides of the coin there. Um, but yeah, they're our fellows that are working on it, on it. They're, they do a fantastic job. Um, just really happy to be able to work with them. Well, it seems like a, uh, serve with them, lot of to serve with them, not work to serve with Yeah. Reserve. Yes. Yeah.

Well, a, you know, it's, it is a lot of hard work and, um, I, I think you're challenging a lot of, uh, suppositions that, um. Have, have been around for a long time. So, uh, really wanna thank you there. Um, and I, I tell you what, we, I, I've enjoyed the conversation so much and I wanna thank you both, Ken and Jeremy for, uh, for joining me.

We always end our. Our podcast with asking what does something greater, just the phrase mean to you. And I think, Ken, I think I'll start with you just in case we lose you again. Well, that's, uh, something the signal signal's done to yellow. Oh, no, that's, uh, I just really, really appreciate the opportunity to come on here and, and share what we're doing.

Um, say something greater. I mean, the, the service work that we're doing with, with Lead for America and the American Connection Corps is something greater because it's bigger than yourself. Um, we're, we're doing work that needs to be done, um, and, and performing service that needs to be served. Uh, our small towns, we, we need, we need better broadband.

Um, we need people, and this is a, this is a way to get both of those done. Um, just Lead for America is such a great program. Um, I'm excited that it, that it exists and that we have, uh, partners and sponsors like yourself. That see, see the need and can see the future in, in, in the lens that, you know, rural communities are important.

We're not going away. Um, we're stand, we're standing here. We're, we're gonna be, we're gonna defy the odds and, and bridge that digital divide. Gosh, I couldn't have said it better, Ken, thank you so much. In there, as you've mentioned, um, partners and sponsors and uh, and lead for America, everybody is cheering for you.

Um, Jeremy, appreciate, how about you? Um, what does the phrase, something greater mean to you? Yeah, when I hear something greater, I think of one of our core values at Frontier is to better our best and it's around continuous improvement. Uh, never sitting back on our heels and. Um, I think about agriculture and the development that has create, been created over the last, you know, 5, 10, 15, 20 years, you name it.

And there's so much greater things gonna happen in the future in agriculture and rural communities, and I'm excited about that. That's great. Well, I, I, I wanna thank you both. I, Jeremy, that is just, um, I'm gonna think about that a lot today, the better. Our best, um, wonderful, uh, wonderful conversation, rich things to think about, and, uh, I just couldn't thank you, you both more.

Have a wonderful rest of the day. Thank you. You too. Connectivity unleashes potential. And we can't wait to see how it unfolds as we connect more communities together. Learn more@americanconnectionproject.com.