HULBERT, Oklahoma – The lack of rural broadband resembles another issue faced decades ago – lack of rural electric. “In rural areas, you can have less than 10 customers for every mile of fiber optics that you have,” Hamid Vahdatipour, CEO of Lake Region Electric Cooperative, said. “In town, that number could go as high as 50 or 70 customers per mile, so it is difficult to provide this kind of service for rural America.” Vahdatipour said for-profit companies do not want to invest in rural broadband. The government helped get electric to rural America by setting up cooperatives to help residents pay to install poles and lines. Those same cooperatives want to add broadband to their list of services. Thomas Edison created the lightbulb in 1879, but rural areas were not entirely electrified until the 1960s, Hal Wallace said. Wallace curates the electricity collections at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American Histo...