Heck, we just discovered without the kids even getting back into the classroom, that we’ll still need snow days cause when the weather goes tits up, so does the electricity and the internet.
Yeah here broadband deployment is still pretty sketchy in some areas, thanks to the FCC having allowed providers to call it deployed if one house is served in a given block on the map. Assorted providers like Frontier bit down on some federal incentives to finish the job but Frontier has gone bankrupt in the meantime and one can wonder what their restructuring plans will encompass in the way of service extensions. God knows they don't plan on anything like giving the government money back, right? We even joke grimly around here whenever internet service goes out that they may not have paid their upstream bill...
Service issues aside, the poverty rate is high enough here that plenty of students' homes don't have net access. So for ordinary homework even during F2F learning, the kids must rely on public library access or trips back to the school parking lot if their parents can afford the gas and time.
Most people have a cell phone plan but some are literally just for voice calls, and there are lots of areas in the mountainous terrain where there's not even any cell service. The carriers all refer to that situation as "spotty coverage" which sounds like no big deal until you realize that means there's no service for 400 square miles along a whole valley running between a couple of townships.
It's the best of all worlds when some investment banker buys a second home up here and then starts leaning on the local congress critters about the dismal state of telecommunications in the area when he tries to work remotely on weekends. At least the local EMS responders have got a few signal booster installations after issues with folk on state roads being unable to dial 911 after a crash.
