“fiber

1:04:07

is a thing and like getting fiber to people’s homes is a thing that was

1:04:13

solved back in like the 19th century right like the people who pulled electrical wires and phone wires to

1:04:20

Lonely farmhouses at the end of country lanes were not not like practicing a

1:04:25

forgotten art this isn’t like embalming pharaohs right like we know how to get

1:04:31

wires to places um there’s a a county I’ve just blanked its name there’s a county in Kentucky in Appalachia it’s

1:04:37

the um it’s called the poorest White County in America because obviously race and income are very highly correlated

1:04:44

but it’s a very poor place and they had a uh telephone Co-op that was a descendant of an an electrification

1:04:51

Co-op from the New Deal that used some state and federal grants to pull fiber

1:04:56

to every home including homes in Mountain hallers which they pulled on the back of

1:05:03

a mule called Old bub and uh the median income doubled in

1:05:10

this County right it it became like a place where people and this was before lockdown this was before uh you know

1:05:18

Broadband became so critical to how we operate”