Connect Americans Now is a new alliance of rural advocates and community leaders working together with the FCC and policymakers to increase broadband connectivity. CAN Policy spokesman Zach Cikanek says nationwide there are 34 million Americans who lack affordable and reliable broadband service., most of those in rural areas.

He says rural hospitals pay on average three times more than urban hospitals do to connect to the internet. Cikanek also says his alliance wants to work with the FCC to get new technologies out in rural areas to deliver broadband services.

Cikanek says it’s very expensive to put in fiber optic cable with the cost of $30,000 a mile. However, he says there is a more inexpensive way to deliver broadband and that’s through TV White Space.

Cikanek says CAN’s goal is to get affordable broadband access to Rural America