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Since the George W. Bush , the federal government has doled out millions of dollars with the promise to expedite access to broadband service in remote parts of the country.

President Donald Trump is no exception, having signed earlier this month directing the government to use 鈥渁ll viable tools鈥� to speed up the process to locate wireless technology on federal buildings in rural areas. Plus, Chairman Ajit Pai just putting a $500 million toward rural broadband.

While all political persuasions agree with the recent U.S. Department of Agriculture鈥檚 Rural Task Force that broadband is critical for the economic health of a large swath of the country, experts say the devil is in the details 鈥� or lack thereof. They also say Pai鈥檚 infusion of money does little more than restore funding that previously had been cut.

Some U.S. senators are asking for dedicated money for broadband through an unspecified infrastructure package instead of what鈥檚 amounted to a pile of executive orders and 39 percent of rural America still without broadband service.

Trump鈥檚 executive order is 鈥渁 very solid first step鈥� but 鈥渧ery, very similar to what is currently under discussion at the FCC,鈥� according to Shirley Bloomfield, the CEO of the national Rural Broadband Association (also known as NTCA). She was on stage Jan. 8 at the American Farm Bureau鈥檚 national conference in Nashville, Tennessee, when Trump signed the executive order 鈥� a move she says will 鈥渆ase the way, it will speed some of the things up.鈥�

But Bloomfield, who鈥檚 headed the NTCA for eight years, says more needs to be done. She says people underestimate what it costs to connect far-flung parts of America to the internet at speeds that allow people to stream videos and handle large amounts of data and uploads.

The reason it鈥檚 so expensive, Bloomfield said, is simple: density. She compared living in an urban area like Washington, D.C., where there might be on average 300 people per square mile, to a rural area 鈥渨here on average our folks that we represent here have about 5.5 customers per mile of wire.鈥�

鈥淭hat fiber isn鈥檛 getting any cheaper. Your software and your switching capacity isn鈥檛 any cheaper. But the number of customers that you have to spread the cost among is a lot fewer,鈥� she said via Skype.

Where the buildings aren't

One of the things the executive order puts forth is having the General Services Administration, which oversees hundreds of federal buildings, respond to and approve more quickly providers鈥� requests to put wireless services on such buildings, federal lands, federally assisted highways and tribal lands.

It鈥檚 not that easy, though. For one, even though there are USDA offices all over, much of rural America isn鈥檛 near a federal building.

鈥淲ell, I look at our area, I can鈥檛 think of any that would be a potential site,鈥� said Jason Smith, the general manager and CEO of Rainbow Communications in Everest, Kansas. Smith, whose utility provides fiber-based broadband service over 500 square miles (about 1,500 people) in northeast Kansas, said Trump鈥檚 plan 鈥渟ounded good,鈥� but he wanted more details.

鈥�(Trump) knows that the towers were coming. The disconnect is in the rural areas: The towers, they don鈥檛 stand alone. As a rural provider, we鈥檙e still going to have to get fiber access to those towers to be able to provide service back to the main, to the core network,鈥� Smith said.

The GSA declined an interview with Harvest Public Media, but provided a statement that it released after Trump鈥檚 executive orders.

鈥淲e look forward to evaluating our current application process in order to remove any obstacles to broadband services and efficiently utilize government resources,鈥� GSA Administrator Emily Murphy said. 鈥淲e will collaborate with industry to deploy faster broadband so that rural Americans may have access to affordable, reliable, and modern high-speed broadband connectivity.鈥�

An expensive process

Even if there is less red tape, funding is still an issue for Smith and utilities like his. Less money is coming from the federal fund (USF) which helps pay for broadband expansion. Pai, the FCC chairman, said last week that he鈥檇 like to put $500 million toward building out broadband, but both Bloomfield and Smith believe that鈥檚 just restoring money to the Universal Service pot.

Smith said Rainbow Communications initially saw a 6 percent cut of its USF money, but is now up to almost 15 percent, which makes it difficult to budget at a time when he鈥檚 seeing the demand for broadband grow annually.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 know what the impacts will be (of the proposed $500 million), if this is the short-term fix, that we鈥檙e going to overhaul the whole system or this is just a one-time infusion. I mean, this is definitely a step in the right direction to help make up for some of the shortfalls,鈥� he said.

Funding is a major concern for the Senate Broadband Caucus, too. The bipartisan panel, of which North Dakota Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp is a part, sent a letter to Trump on Wednesday again asking that rural broadband be included in any infrastructure initiative that he鈥檚 been discussing.

鈥淚n (rural) communities, general private investment can be difficult. Without dedicated funding for broadband deployment, proposals to bring broadband to unserved areas may struggle to compete with other larger infrastructure projects,鈥� wrote Sens. Heitkamp; Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota; Angus King, I-Maine; John Boozman, R-Arkansas; and Shelley Moore Capito, R-West Virginia. 鈥淪tand-alone funding for broadband will ensure that telecommunications infrastructure is advanced alongside needed upgrades to our roads, rail, bridges, ports and waterways.鈥�

Smith points out that in his area, agriculture depends on technology. He鈥檚 seeing farmers use more bandwidth to remotely monitor crops in the field and grain-storage bins scattered across the countryside. But he also said his residential customers are looking to 鈥渟tart their own businesses鈥� or 鈥減ursue advanced degrees from colleges by taking distance-learning classes in their home.鈥�

鈥淭hat wasn鈥檛 even a possibility 10 years ago,鈥� he said.

To that end, the USDA announced Friday it would dole out in the form of 72 grants for distance learning and telemedicine in places like Colorado, Illinois, Missouri and Nebraska. The agency鈥檚 news release said these are 鈥渧ital services鈥� that will help rural areas 鈥渙vercome the effects of remoteness and low population density by connecting them to the rest of the world through high-speed internet.鈥�

It鈥檚 another sign that this administration is emphasizing broadband access for all. But Bush in 2004 said he wanted to have the whole country connected by 2007. It鈥檚 a decade later, and it鈥檒l take more than several million dollars and executive orders to make this long-discussed hope a reality.

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