Virtual Reality Bridges Other Gaps

As broadband once sought to help bridge the digital divide and connect Tennesseeans in rural areas with healthcare, education, and entertainment, virtual reality offers a means to close another gap. Through virtual reality, people like senior citizens or those with disabilities can enjoy opportunities to walk around a neighborhood in Vienna or experience the feeling of jumping out of a plane 10,000 feet in the air.

Across the country, VR is already expanding opportunities. At a retirement community in California, residents use VR to travel through Europe, scuba dive, or hang-glide together, creating shared experiences that foster a sense of community and well-being. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles-based nonprofit Creative Acts uses VR inside prisons to help prepare incarcerated men for life after release. Participants practice real-world scenarios and explore unfamiliar places through the program, which has reportedly contributed to reduced prison violence.

Here in Tennessee, Fisk University students use VR to participate in virtual cadaver labs for anatomy training and take immersive field trips to historic sites like the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. The university found that traditional broadband could not support full-classroom VR streaming, which means that our members, with their high bandwidth availability, are in a prime position to step in.

Similar efforts are underway at the University of Tennessee, where augmented reality and VR experiences are helping simulate high-risk or high-cost environments, from nuclear plants to deep-ocean exploration. State broadband planning and grant programs increasingly emphasize virtual education, telehealth, digital skills, and remote work—areas where AR and VR naturally fit once strong connectivity and device access are in place. While rural telcos and co-ops may not yet be branding AR/VR applications, the opportunities are ripe for the future Tennessee broadband providers are building.