Older Mississippians may not be familiar with the technology, the terminology or even how high-speed internet works.
But they do know what they want.
Thursday, AARP Mississippi and Brandon Presley, Mississippi Public Service Commissioner for the Northern District, will present a high-speed internet workshop from 6-7 p.m. at Mississippi University for Women’s Thad Cochran Building in the Cochran-Limbert Assembly Room.
The workshop will show how high-speed internet can help improve the quality of life for people of all ages and help older Mississippians live independently in their homes and communities. Speakers will explain how access to high-speed internet can help combat social isolation and improve well-being by supporting services like distance learning and telehealth.
For Presley, who has been a champion for expanding high-speed internet service to rural areas, Thursday’s event is an opportunity to target his message.
“One of the groups we are trying to reach out to in explaining the benefits of broadband service are our senior citizens,” Presley said. “There are a lot of life-changing tools available on the internet, everything from combating the isolation senior citizens can feel from health care — monitoring pacemakers or video visits with their doctors — all the way down to streaming movies and shows. We’ll try to cover a wide variety of issues and explain the benefits.”
According to “America’s Digital Divide,” a report by the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee, 60 percent of rural Mississippians do not have access to high-speed internet. The Federal Communications Commission has found that 79 percent of Mississippi households are not connected to the internet at speeds defined as high speed — 25 megabits per second download speed and three megabits per second upload speed.
Presley led the charge for a law passed by the Legislature in this year’s session, which allows electric co-ops in the state to provide high-speed internet service to its customers.
Since then, four of the 10 electric co-ops in Presley’s district have announced plans to provide that service, most recently Monroe County Electric Power Association, which provides service in Caledonia.
“We have roughly 285,000 AARP members in Mississippi,” said AARP Mississippi State Director Kimberly Cole. “With that kind of membership, we have a diverse range of advocacy positions and certainly extending internet service to rural areas has been a high priority for us. We were very active in the Legislature in supporting the co-op bill.
“People are living longer and they are living longer differently now,” she added. “They are still working, helping raise children, doing all sorts of things. Today, much of that is accessed through the internet. It’s a quality of life issue, but also a health and security issue.”
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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