Some Progress on Rural Broadband Issues
This week’s Courier Herald column:
Last year there was a study committee on rural broadband issues and the growing digital divide facing our state. Residents of metro Atlanta and other densely populated parts of the state don’t witness this problem. Those living in rural Georgia too frequently deal with internet service that is slow, unreliable, or non-existent.
The main work of the committee was to identify that there really several major problems under the rural broadband umbrella. Access to service, speed of service, reliability of service, cost of service, and regulatory barriers impeding delivery of service are all subtopics worthy of understanding before any solution set is found.
There also remains a question of the proper government role in solving this problem. Purists would suggest that the market will eventually self-correct. The problem with that frame of mind is that an entire generation of Georgians may lose out on opportunities in education, commerce, and employment opportunities before economies of scale allow for modern broadband service to be deployed throughout the state.
On the other end of the spectrum are those that believe the state should invest in a government run or subsidized solution similar to the TVA effort to electrify Appalachia, for much the same reasons. There are many problems with this approach. The cost would be enormous, and the ability to agree on a standard solution and deploy it would likely force an outdated standard of service by the time it was operational. Technology in this area is changing too fast.
There are some regulatory and taxation issues that the state can deploy relatively easily to incentivize rural broadband improvements without taking over a lead role in service rollouts. Currently investments of equipment used in broadband deployment are subject to state sales taxes. A majority of states exempt these taxes, and studies have shown that the states that do not tax equipment investment have a higher rate of deployment.
The state can also work with counties and cities to ensure a streamlined permitting system. Many rural communities have not adopted a system that would allow for a single master permit when deploying broadband, requiring many separate permits to be filed during a broadband deployment.
While Georgia continues to work on a solution, progress is still being made. Just last week, AT&T announced a new “fixed wireless” broadband service for Lee and Sumter counties. This product would dedicate a new LTE network similar to that used for cellular service, but on a network not used for cellular data. Subscribers would receive a fixed antenna to boost service, with speeds of 10 Mps or greater, which is competitive with current high speed broadband standards.
Other customers on traditional fiber networks are also seeing improvements. Mediacom Communications announced a major service upgrade to customers in 53 communities and 30 Southwest Georgia counties in April, representing a $1 Billion capital investment. Over the next 3 years, 275,000 customers in communities as large as Columbus and Valdosta but as small as Hahira, Lenox, and Ty Ty will see service improve to speeds that will allow a 2-hour High Definition movie to be downloaded in as soon as 28 seconds.
Unique to those two announcements are the people in Americus. They will have the choice of Mediacom 1 Gig service or AT&T’s fixed wireless product. Yes, even deep in Southwest Georgia, competition in broadband service is starting to emerge.
The problems of rural broadband deployment continue to be studied by legislators, this year under the much broader “Rural Development Council”. Broadband is being looked at as in context with economic development, education, rural healthcare, and other issues unique to the lesser developed parts of the state. The point is that all of these issues are interconnected, and solutions for one often depend on solutions for others.
Speeding deployment of reliable and cost-effective high speed broadband to rural Georgia is essential to support progress in other policy areas. Thus far, the state has avoided heavy handed, Atlanta imposed solutions. While some are starting to see progress, a few more carrots such as tax and regulatory relief would allow more Georgians to see similar solutions even faster.
About Author
Charlie
Founder of GeorgiaPol.com; Now weekly columnist Very interested in Georgia and Georginas. Interest in politics is waning daily.
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Up here in Dade it is really frustrating. Some in the County get EPB fiber service with speeds up to 10 gigs. They is just a small part. Hopefully they can expand into all of Dade County. Charter only cherry picks the populated areas. I live on the wrong side of the interstate. Our local DSL supplier Trenton Telephone is spotty and they to are slow to build out their fiber network. I think this is a matter of funding as they are a locally owned business. 5 mb DSL service is $90 once you add all the fees etc. It is really not as fast as advertised. In face Somebody set up a facebook page on it. https://www.facebook.com/groups/133230973947271/?hc_location=ufi. I have said for years that one way to get the system expanded is when the cable franchise fee is up for negotiation the Commision shoould require the utilities to expand in rural ares by a certain amount each year until the county is built out.
And the electric co-op bill wouldn’t help us inless GA Power decided to get in the internet business in Dade because they supply most of the power in our rural county.
Before broadband it was highways, and it’s debatable that was worth foregone transit opportunities.
One step forward, and another back….
The “End Taxpayer Funded Cell Phone Act,” authored by Georgia’s Austin Scott seeks to reduce poor people’s access to affordable broadband and mobile phones. The bill goes after the Lifeline program that began in 1985 providing subsidies for telephones, and was in recent years expanded to include broadband Internet and mobile phones. (Who can forgot the Obamaphones that preceded Obama even being elected?) The objective of the bill is clear:
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“To prohibit universal service support of commercial mobile service and commercial mobile data service through the Lifeline program.”
A subject dear to my heart. At the mercy of satellite here is Harris County Georgia I am continually amazed at the length of time it takes for a hungry company to find a profitable niche in a field so obviously rich in opportunity. Infrastructure or lack of is generally touted as a culprit but to round up the usual suspects let’s add protectionism and concern over rooftops. The population of Harris is estimated at around 35000 given the lags and margin of error for census. It is not a poor county. We are located on the Western shores of our fair state just outside the Muscogee County line defined to the west by the mighty “hooch” LaGrange to our north and the boundless tracts of timber country to our east. I find it frustrating beyond belief that somehow our county has been divided up into who can do business where. Competition should be the factor of contributing to who is allowed to supply internet services. If a company has the technology and the investment capital to venture into what is already recognized as yet another necessity in a complicated world they should be welcomed with open arms. Given the tax breaks for just about any niche company in industry or agriculture why is there no tax incentives for those capable of supplying broadband to someone living in the sticks? I listened and watched with interest as Drew read his statement regarding the importance of rural America and the matching rhetoric of the importance of communication veiled in the guise of high speed internet but detected no introduction of a means to address the issues we endure. Words with no action. Satellite is a horrible dependency, inclement weather, ridiculous data caps, contractual obligations weighted completely in favor of the provider. Off shore customer service that not only inefficient, but rude and sometime unintelligible. We have had entire sites blocked. Blocked to the extent we could not visit Netflix to change a DVD queue or pay the bill. Why? No one know or is not saying. Clouds at the NOC will limit the delivery of the service, clouds on the receiver end and stop it completely. I love my patch of paradise in West Central Georgia, but relying on smoke signals for communication is a bit much. Tax breaks and fast track licensing is needed to prevent Georgia from lagging further behind. Get the regulatory issues out of the way, stop delaying long enough to figure out how to maximise profits at the expense of the citizen and which big boys get to make the best buck. Let the bits and bytes flow and commerce grow.
~Red State Renegade