RACA: AIRWAVES Act Will Help Position Agricultural Businesses for Success Now and in the Future
(JULY 25) – Members of the Rural Agricultural Council of America (RACA) have experienced the diffuse social and economic benefits greater connectivity can offer.
The AIRWAVES Act reintroduced in Congress will strengthen and expand those gains by releasing 500 megahertz of licensed spectrum below 6 GHz and an additional 500 MHz of unlicensed spectrum above 5 GHz for auction by the end of 2022.
Demand for spectrum – the lifeblood of communications and the digital economy – will only continue to increase, and the FCC has pledged that 10% of the proposed auction proceeds to wireless broadband infrastructure buildout in unserved and underserved areas.
The AIRWAVES Act will help equip rural farmers and ranchers with the internet speed, capacity, and reliability they deserve. We applaud this bipartisan effort and encourage the swift passage of this important legislation.
ABOUT RACA
The Rural & Agriculture Council of America (RACA), headquartered in Billings, Montana in conjunction with Washington, DC representation, is a consortium of mayors, county commissioners, ranchers, farmers, producers, main street business owners, and leaders in rural America. Working as collective group, RACA is the voice of rural America in Washington, advocating for federal, state, and local policy and regulatory reform to advance the rural and agricultural goals and initiatives of America. The policy and regulatory reform objectives of RACA are dictated by our stakeholders and reflect the discussions being held by policy makers on the Hill.
RACA specializes in targeted, well-researched grassroots campaigns to increase awareness about the policy and regulatory objectives of rural America. RACA achieves a heightened level of awareness for the issues we work with by engaging with producers, ranchers, main street business owners, and policy makers, allowing a forum for communication on the issues most important to those in rural America. RACA thrives in bringing issues from main street to Washington, RACA gives a prominent voice to these issues by employing an arsenal of targeted social media campaigns, meetings/discussions with policy and decision makers, press conferences, editorials, industry roundtables, briefings by industry experts or our council, fly-ins, and keeping stakeholders informed via press releases.
In the past, RACA has lent our expertise to an extensive array of rural policy and regulatory issues including, the Farm Bill, tax reform/policy, broadband expansion, EPA, and regulations. RACA has been, and will continue to be, a pioneer in representing the policy and regulatory objectives of rural America, we strive to take the dialogue of main street, rural America, to policy and decision makers in Washington