Rural US towns – left out by broadband – build their own
More than 300 communities consider launching local high-speed Internet service.
from the June 7, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
Many towns eye high-speed access
Other communities are reaching the same conclusion. More than 300, from cities to small towns, are considering launching their own high-speed Internet services, most of them using wireless technologies, says James Baller, a Washington, D.C., lawyer who has represented many of the towns. Hundreds of them have already done so, he says.
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"There is a growing consensus that everything that we do in the future is going to be based on broadband platform," Mr. Baller says. "If you don't have access in the reasonably foreseeable future, you cannot participate as full citizens in the emerging knowledge-based information economy. Nobody wants to be left out."
President Bush seemed to acknowledge this sentiment when, in 2004, he called for "affordable" broadband technology in "every corner of our country" by 2007. Telecommunications companies have gradually expanded broadband Internet into rural areas, but they have not met expectations, given the expansion of the Internet in business, education, and other areas of American life.
"There's a lot of grumbling about providers, that they aren't moving fast enough," says Norman Walzer, an economist at Western Illinois University in Macomb and founder of the Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs. "From the provider's perspective, if they don't perceive enough of a market, they're not going to do it. It's really a speed question. You can get dial-up practically anywhere, but dial-up is not going to let you do the things you want to do."
The Pew Internet and American Life Project confirms what many rural residents suspect: The gap in broadband Internet usage between rural America and the rest of the country remains wide. A survey last year found that 29 percent of rural Americans had broadband at home compared with 48 percent of urban and suburban residents.
Most small towns enjoy some form of broadband service, though lack of competition means it is often slower and more expensive than residents would like. Choices are more limited in the countryside. Broadband services offered by cable or telephone companies seldom reach beyond town boundaries. Wireless companies serve wide expanses of countryside, but coverage can be spotty, and trees, hills, and even bad weather can disrupt the signals. William Weaver, a farmer in Illinois's Clark County and chairman of the county board of commissioners, says many farmers can't get good service.
The quality of Internet service in rural areas often depends on the size of the local telephone company, experts say. Small independent utilities, such as telephone companies, are usually quicker to provide high-speed service than are the telecom giants. Rural communities contemplating starting their own Internet services are turning for inspiration and expertise to successful examples. One is Princeton, Ill. In 2003, the town received a complaint from a large employer about the poor quality of Internet service. Fearful of losing jobs, Princeton laid fiber-optic cable to the town's largest businesses. It also began offering broadband to homes over the town's power lines, using one of the newest forms of Internet technology.
Other communities have extended high-speed service deep into the countryside. One of the best known is Scottsburg, Ind., a town of 6,000 that in 2003 started up a wireless network for Scott County. The service proved so popular that Scottsburg expanded it to nine counties. "We've been waiting forever to get something out here," says Edie Sanders, a stay-at-home mother who recently hooked up to the network.
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