The COVID-19 pandemic has changed our world and once again or should I say Still, many remain stuck and out of the loop because of nonexistent internet services. Living in the remote areas of Sullivan County and many of the other counties surrounding us in NY state puts so many of our residents behind the eight ball with technology rolling right over us.
Those without high-speed internet connections cannot work from home and the school students who are unable to attend school are unable to participate in online learning. This will have a devastating effect on their advancement as things return to a very new and very different normal. Our students living in these remote and highly unsupported areas of this state will be left far behind their peers who do have high-speed internet. We have heard for many years about how the various internet and cable providers have been granted all sorts of state and federal funds to assure all NY residents have the technological resources to keep up with the times yet in all these years we still remain in the 20th century and stuck with either dial-up internet or if we are fortunate a totally inadequate satellite provider with severe data caps that negate our abilities for learning, searching and streaming any internet-based programming.
Those who do have unlimited access to the world wide web will never understand just how far behind the times we who do not have this luxury are. I pay a very steep price for just 10GBs of data per month via my satellite internet service. Once I use my 10GB allotment of data my internet is throttled back to slow speed not much better than the original dial-up service I upgraded from. I can’t stream lessons or use Hulu, Roku, Netflix or Youtube. We can’t Tweet or use Instagram and in these remote areas we have little or no cellular services and our cell phones are useless. My own town of Forestburgh, NY has a big cell tower erected on property donated by the town on the fire company property just 3 miles from my home yet I have Zero cell signal because AT&T is in some sort of dispute with Verizon. My elected officials are powerless and unable to bring us into the 21st century but our tax dollars continue to fund these provider companies just the same. The companies complain it is not cost-effective to provide HS direct cables in remote areas while they benefit and profit from the more populated towns and villages where it is cost-effective. Just 3 miles from my home is a very different world where cell and cable services are readily available and students who attend the same schools will be far more advanced than their peers simply because they have the services we do not. This is an immense failure on the part of the state and federal government, our local elected officials and the companies that put their need for profit dollars before the needs of the people. We are 20 years into the Digital world of the 21st century while those in remote areas remain in the Analog world of the 20th century and in the dark of yesteryear. Isn’t it funny how our school and property taxes are just as high and in many cases higher but with the lack of basic services our property values are substantially reduced because who wants to live in the dark ages. Instead of basic services all we get is “Lip Service” from our elected officials.
Gary Lothrop
Forestburgh, NY
Opinions expressed in Letters to the Editor are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Mid-Hudson News.
