“Every Last Mile: The Untold Story of Connecting Rural America." Luke Newton, Washington and Lee University (W&L), Creative Investment Research.
On Wednesday, June 26, 2024, I had the honor to attend a screening of the documentary, “Every Last Mile: The Untold Story of Connecting Rural America,” hosted by the Washington Post. The documentary showcases the recent legislative push to connect rural communities to high-speed internet access. The event also featured a Q&A session after the screening with Rural Utilities Service Administrator Andrew Berke and Virginia’s broadband office director Tamarah Holmes. The documentary focused on three crews working to connect communities in King Cove, Alaska, Lakewood Township, Minnesota, and Congress, Arizona. Be it the freezing temperatures of Alaska, the rocky soil of Minnesota, or the debilitating heat of the Arizona desert, the documentary showcased the environmental challenges these crews must overcome. Moreover, some of the most grueling projects will only be connecting very small communities, a result that doesn’t match the herculean effort required to obtain it. Existing utiliti...