{"id":35618,"date":"2018-04-10T07:00:07","date_gmt":"2018-04-10T14:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valleycom.com\/?p=35618"},"modified":"2019-05-22T09:20:15","modified_gmt":"2019-05-22T16:20:15","slug":"fcc-commissioner-carr-visits-rural-towns-in-veas-service-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/valleycom.com\/fcc-commissioner-carr-visits-rural-towns-in-veas-service-area\/","title":{"rendered":"FCC Commissioner Carr visits rural towns in VEA\u2019s service area"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Vern Hee<\/strong><\/p>\n

Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr brought national attention to Southern Nevada April 9, during visits to Beatty, Amargosa Valley, Pahrump and Mountain Springs to get an update on the progress of high-speed broadband in Valley Electric Association Territory.<\/p>\n

Bringing high-speed broadband to rural America is a top priority for the FCC<\/p>\n

Carr heard from medical professionals, educators, business owners and residents during his day-long tour, mostly in Nye County.<\/p>\n

Carr started the morning at the Beatty Medical Clinic, a facility that likely would no longer exist if Valley Communications Association had not brought high-speed broadband to the clinic several months ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe tried using telemedicine out here before VCA, but the speeds \u2026 we couldn\u2019t make it work,\u201d said Dr. Michael D. Reiner, a family practitioner serving Pahrump and Beatty. \u201cThen VCA came with the higher speeds and we were able to conduct visits.\u201d<\/p>\n

The clinic keeps some Beatty patients from making expensive, time-consuming trips to Pahrump or Las Vegas for treatment.<\/p>\n

\"FCC
FCC Commissioner Branden Carr, left, and Beatty High School Principal Chris Brockman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t do it without the fiber; without the (broadband) speed you wouldn\u2019t get this kind of interaction,\u201d said Reiner. \u201cIt has been a godsend. The world revolves around Internet, and this is a good example of how it is useful. My hat is off to VEA for bringing the higher speeds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carr is one of five commissioners of the FCC, which regulates interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable in the U.S. The Commission is\u00a0\u00a0 responsible for implementing and enforcing America\u2019s communications law and regulations.<\/p>\n

During his visit to Nye County, Carr said he gained a new appreciation for the value of broadband in rural areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is helpful for us to get out here and see the real difference it makes when they get that broadband infrastructure,\u201d Carr said. \u201cTo be able to go from potentially closing down the facility, people having to drive 60 to 100 miles to go to Pahrump or forgo medical treatment all together \u2026 it really makes a difference and sheds light on what we are trying to do, which is get more broadband out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beatty High School Principal Chris Brockman told Carr that faster Internet speeds now allow students to take state-mandated tests without interruptions, a constant issue before high-speed broadband was installed by VCA last fall.<\/p>\n

\"Sara
Sara Hoy of Ponderosa Dairy with FCC Commissioner Branden Carr<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Carr later toured Ponderosa Dairy in Amargosa Valley. Quality Assurance Manager Sara Hoy explained to Carr that the dairy\u2019s staff depends on high-speed Internet connectivity to get 15,000 Holsteins fed daily. Broadband also helps her communicate vital medical information about the herd remotely to veterinarians in Colorado.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s interesting to see how remote (the dairy) is and what it takes to keep the herd healthy,\u201d Carr said.\u00a0 \u201cWe continue to learn more every time we take a trip out here. We learn about some of the things that are jamming the providers up,\u201d the commissioner said. \u201cAnd what we can help them with back in D.C., like easing of the regulations on federal lands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carr was impressed how Valley Communications serves its members with broadband.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have work to do,\u201d said Carr. \u201cIt is interesting to see the work that Valley Electric Association has done to bring connectivity to rural areas,\u201d Carr said. \u201cIt\u2019s not easy work. It is obviously very capital intensive to bring broadband to low population density areas. But we see a tremendous amount of payoff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carr finished his Southern Nevada visit with a town hall meeting in Mountain Springs. The commissioner got an earful from a dozen residents who must endure slow internet speeds even though they are so close to a VCA fiber line that it can be seen from the firehouse where the meeting took place. Regulatory hurdles have delayed connection to broadband.<\/p>\n

Carr said he was sympathetic to their concerns. \u201cNo matter how you slice it, the current regulatory process is broken. It is helpful to hear from real people like you with real problems.\u201d Carr promised to personally call officials at the Federal Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service and other federal agencies that have slowed the process down. \u201cIt\u2019s not a top priority for BLM. It\u2019s not in their DNA.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photos by Jeff Scheid<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Vern Hee Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr brought national attention to Southern Nevada April 9, during visits to Beatty, Amargosa Valley, Pahrump and Mountain Springs to get an update on the progress of high-speed broadband in Valley Electric Association Territory. Bringing high-speed broadband to rural America is a top priority for the FCC Carr…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":35619,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2024-04-14 12:42:05","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/valleycom.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35618"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/valleycom.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/valleycom.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valleycom.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valleycom.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/valleycom.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valleycom.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/valleycom.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valleycom.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valleycom.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}