FESCO President and CEO Ed VanHoose represented Ohio's 25 electric cooperatives Thursday in discussion with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on rural broadband deployment.

Commissioner Mike O'Reilly visited Buckeye Local Schools in Jefferson County at the invitation of U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson, who says much of his district, which spans nearly all of eastern Ohio, is underserved.

“Co-ops were formed over 80 years ago because investors wouldn’t go into rural Ohio, so the co-ops took it on themselves to get electric service," VanHoose told O'Reilly. "We need to do that again on the rural broadband side. The electric co-ops in Ohio have begun or completed feasibility studies for broadband.”

FESCO, which is a federation of Lorain-Medina Rural Electric Cooperative in Wellington and North Central Electric Cooperative in Attica, is conducting broadband feasibility studies for both co-ops.

Johnson told O’Reilly he’s already shared his frustrations with FCC Chairman Ajit Varandaraj and President Donald Trump.  “If we don’t solve this rural broadband problem over the next 20 years, we are not going to have a problem to solve,” he said. “Families are leaving. They are going to where they can get connected to the digital economy because that is the way the world operates. As the older generation passes away from southern Ohio, we are going to be left with a  fragment of what we have today.”

VanHoose spoke alongside six other panelists from American Electric Power, local business leaders, and local school officials, all of whom explained how the lack of high-speed internet -- or even cellphone service -- hinders education and economic development.