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b'Telephone and electric cooperatives are making strides in bringing high-quality connectivity to rural areas while national providers stay in the city. This week we speak with two gentlemen from rural southwest Michigan\\u2019s\\xa0Midwest Energy Cooperative: President and CEO Bob Hance and Vice President of Regulatory Compliance Dave Allen.The electric cooperative has embarked on a project to bring fiber-optic connectivity to its members within its electric distribution grid. The multi-year project will bring better functionality to electric services and high-speed Internet access to areas of the state struggling with yesterday\\u2019s technologies. Bob and Dave describe the cooperative\\u2019s commitment to it\\u2019s members and discuss the deep roots of the cooperative in the region. They also touch on how the project is already improving lives in the areas that are being served.Bob, Dave, and Chris, also spend some time discussing the difficulties that face rural cooperatives, especially regarding federal funding and its distribution. Serving sparsely populated areas is a challenge. Federal funding is often distributed more favorably to big corporate providers that promise to deliver much slower speeds than cooperatives like Midwest Energy. Co-ops are delivering better services, and building better networks with less federal funding; they also face higher hurdles to obtain that funding.Why do they do it? Because they are invested in the future of their communities.Read more about the project at the Midwest Connections\\xa0Team Fiber website.Read the transcript of the show here.We want your feedback and suggestions for the show-please\\xa0e-mail us\\xa0or leave a comment below.This show is 28 minutes long and can be played below on this page or\\xa0via iTunes\\xa0or via the tool of your choice using\\xa0this feed.You can\\xa0download this mp3 file directly from here. Listen to\\xa0other episodes here\\xa0or\\xa0view all episodes in our index.Thanks to\\xa0mojo monkeys\\xa0for the music, licensed using Creative Commons. The song is "Bodacious."'