Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in a recent interview that rural customers deserve the fast delivery speeds and broadband internet connectivity that those in urban areas take for granted.
He told CNBC’s Jim Cramer that Amazon is committed to serving rural areas, investing $4 billion to build out a last-mile delivery network for rural customers and more than doubling same-day deliveries to rural areas so far this year, with more delivery stations to come.
"If you live in a rural area, the fact that you can't get items via e-commerce in less than three days, I think it's unfair and I think it's a bad customer experience," Jassy told Cramer, discussing Amazon's investments in rural delivery speed. "We're going to be able to get items to customers in rural areas so much faster, inside a day or two, which is a very different customer experience than what you could do before."
Jassy also pointed to Amazon's low Earth orbit satellite project, Amazon Leo, as part of the effort to bring broadband connectivity to rural areas.
"There is a real digital divide," Jassy said. "The things that you and I are used to doing every day that we take for granted, doing business online or education online, or shopping or entertainment, those things you can’t do in a lot of rural communities that are without broadband connectivity. There are billions of people around the world who don't have broadband connectivity."
“If we're able to give them that connectivity,” Jassy said, “it completely changes what's possible for people in rural areas.”
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