Stories

Around here we talk a lot about broadband. From its promising uses for distance learning and home offices to gaming and streaming a diverse range of entertainment, broadband has become entwined in all our lives.

The COVID pandemic has been a once-in-a-century health crisis, upending lives and livelihoods worldwide. With the need for safe access to healthcare during the crisis came a renewed focus on an emerging phenomenon: telehealth, or the use of the internet to provide quality care at a distance. According to a new study, the use of telehealth to treat Medicare patients rose some 10,000% in the first six weeks of the pandemic. This exponential rise underscored a fundamental truth: the life-or-death importance of having a reliable broadband connection. Telehealth, then, is the crossroads between innovation and infrastructure. Let’s explore the latest telehealth trends, and how its advanced technology is being supported by a powerful broadband network.

The current pandemic has been a once-in-a-century health crisis, upending lives and livelihoods worldwide. With the need for safe access to healthcare during the crisis came a renewed focus on an emerging phenomenon: telehealth, or the use of the internet to provide quality care at a distance. 

Twenty years ago, the idea that videoconferencing, streaming-on-demand, and mobile phones would become such an integral part of our lives would have been hard to imagine. Today, an internet connection is essential for education, work, communication, and entertainment in ways previous generations would have found hard to imagine. 

Life on a farm conjures up idyllic images of communing with nature, working the land, and getting back to what’s essential. Increasingly, however, a successful farm is dependent on another factor: highspeed internet.

While Enosburg is blessed with natural beauty and proximity to state forests, watersports, and ski facilities, residents face a challenge that has held them back from accessing high-paying jobs and other opportunities: lack of high-speed internet. Fortunately, that all changed before the world began to shut down, and it changed the life of at least one Enosburg Falls resident—and his family.

With each passing year, broadband is getting faster, cheaper, and more widely available. Although we still have a way to go to ensure that every American has access to broadband, it is worth taking a moment to look at how far we’ve come.

The public-health crisis of the past year has made it clear: broadband internet is an essential service and while millions of Americans have relied on their broadband connections for work, school and to stay connected with loved ones, some Americans still do not have access to high-speed connections. Broadband providers leaped into the breach, launching a series of programs in partnership with governmental agencies and community organizations to get families connected and close those gaps. And now, those same providers are working with the Federal Communications Commission in a promising new initiative: the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program.