Watch: A conversation on rural broadband connectivity

The big picture: On Tuesday, October 31, Axios tech policy reporters Ashley Gold and Maria Curi hosted virtual conversations looking at the state of play for new solutions, legislative policies and innovations working to close the digital divide in the U.S. and expand connectivity.

• Guests included Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) and Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.).

Why it matters: Many rural Americans still lack access to high-speed, reliable broadband which hinders them from being able to take advantage of resources that require a stable internet connection like telemedicine appointments, virtual work and e-learning opportunities.

Sen. Roger Marshall spoke about his work on the bipartisan ReConnecting Rural America Act and what the legislation aims to achieve.

• "We've had success in the past with the ReConnect program, and every time you do a big project like this, you learn from your mistakes. You find out what worked and what didn't work … And what we learned are a couple little tidbits, is number one, we need to put some standards on the download and the upload speeds. And we also just need to put some guardrails down on where the money should be used, so we're not duplicating services as well."

Sen. Tina Smith said broadband access is necessary for rural communities to be able to remain economically competitive.

• "I think that the thing that rural communities understand is that broadband is not just nice to have, it's necessary. It's necessary for education, for jobs, it's necessary for recruiting people to come into communities, and it's one of the questions that economic development professionals needs to ask when somebody is thinking about moving to a small town, what's the broadband like if I'm just a mile or two out of town, can I still have access to broadband? It really is about the competitiveness of these communities and it is absolutely essential."

Sponsored content:

In the View from the Top sponsored segment, Natural Rural Electric Cooperative Association chief executive officer Jim Matheson highlighted the challenges of connecting rural America.

• "It is challenging because it's sparsely populated, vast areas, tough terrain, makes projects more expensive, and you're not signing up many people who are going to be using the service, so how do you make the economics pencil out? And one danger of that is, well, let's maybe make a lesser investment. Let's use lesser technology. Let's not provide the best type of broadband to folks, because that'll be "good enough" for rural. We reject that."

Thank you to the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association for sponsoring this event.