Across the Digital Divide
By Steve Fairchild

There are options for broadband in the country, but the problem of the last mile still exists, and U.S. connectivity lags behind international trends.

Wait for it. Wait for it. Little longer. Almost there. 88 percent…89…90. Session timed out.

That, followed by a bit of foul language directed toward dial-up service, is the scenario for thousands of people living in rural areas not serviced by high-speed Internet. And until you have used broadband, the Internet is simply a modern concept, its true usefulness bogged down by slow connections.
According to a report from the Government Accountability Office, only 17 percent of U.S. rural households subscribe to broadband service. Those within the service area of municipal cable service or DSL lines might have the opportunity to tag along high-speed options in rural towns, but farther out, options are more limited. The GAO says 30 percent of U.S. residents still use dial-up, a percentage many farmers reluctantly join. Back in 2006, a Pew study showed that just 24 percent of rural residents had broadband compared to some 39 percent of people in cities and the suburbs. The disparity has been dubbed the Digital Divide.
In fact, the United States, where the Internet was invented, isn’t keeping up with its overall broadband development compared to other industrialized countries. In a 30-country study from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the United States ranks 15 for broadband penetration. That’s behind other sizable countries with relatively dispersed population such as Canada.
In recent testimony before congress, Mark Lloyd of the Center for American Progress scathingly put lack of rural broadband progress at the foot of policy makers and their reluctance to force change on existing providers.
“The ugly nightmare of the digital age is that new information technologies will increase the advantages of urban and suburban America and deepen the disadvantages of small towns and rural America. The ugly nightmare is that you can live on a farm only 50 miles from the nearest big city, say New York or Chicago, and be unable to compete as effectively for business as somebody sitting in a skyscraper. The ugly nightmare is that your children will simply not have educational options equal to others, that your parents will not have access to the best care available. Whether we realize the dream or the nightmare will not be because of computer engineers or the free market. Public policy makers will choose either the promise or the nightmare.”
While Lloyd’s comments lean toward hyperbole, households stuck with dial-up Internet service are at a competitive disadvantage. Modern businesses assume you have high-speed access, and commerce is increasingly pinned on electronic transactions. That’s to mention nothing of the rising use of telemedicine, online education, telecommuting or the ability to run a business out of your home.

Connectivity on the farm
For Chad Spurling, an Audrain County, Mo., farmer, the last straw for dial-up was when the telephone lines stopped supporting even that.
“We lost Internet every time it rained,” Spurling said, “I’ll give credit to SBC for trying to find the problem, but they couldn’t.”
While SBC, now AT&T, offers DSL in nearby Mexico, Mo., Spurling lived outside the service range. At the time, there were no line-of-sight, radio-based options in the area, so Spurling settled on satellite.
Aside from using e-mail, like most farmers, Spurling has come to depend on the Internet as a part of his business.
“What I was looking for was weather and markets on tap when and where I wanted them. I didn’t want to have to be in the house at noon or wait for that information on the radio,” he said.
Spurling accesses commodity grain markets online as well as using the Internet in his hay growing and brokering business.
“I’m on my second 15-month contract with AgriStar. It’s a Directway dish pointed toward the Hughes satellite. One reason I chose AgriStar is that its customer support is located in Iowa. When I call for help, I can understand the person on the other end.”
Like many of his Generation X tribe, Spurling has evolved away from depending on traditional media platforms. “We don’t have satellite TV. The kids watch videos. At some point, I’ve conditioned myself to get almost all my news off the Internet,” said Spurling, whose farm-based Internet use has included buying a truck on eBay.
Spurling said a pre-packaged ag media product was another consideration in choosing AgriStar. The service has its own market information and analysis from Hightower Research. Basic package information includes the typical array of market products you would expect such as 10-minute delayed futures and options quotes, charting displays, daily analysis on commodities, etc. Service like Spurling’s costs about $300 for the setup, $60 per month and delivers speeds of about 500 kbps. Check out www.agristar.com for more information.
“Another reason we signed up was to keep the phone line free,” said Spurling, adding that avoiding the cost of an additional phone line into the house makes the satellite bill look more affordable. Affordability is an issue for rural Internet subscribers. While DSL in town might cost as little as $15 per month, most options in the country require purchase of equipment, setup fees and higher monthly bills. But sign up rates with satellite providers like AgriStar and Wild Blue (www.wildblue.com) prove that for rural customers, the price is worth it.

Lines of sight
Satellites aren’t the only solution to the short reach of broadband. Mike Fugate of Kingdom Telephone Service in Callaway County, Mo., said that small telephone cooperatives like his are pushing the envelope to get broadband to customers.
“We have built out our network to get DSL to every customer who has a wire connection with us,” he said. “It’s that cooperative mindset that tells us we need to push DSL to our customers.”
In fact, the mindset to push broadband into rural areas has earned Kingdom Telephone Internet Service a regional reputation as a progressive Internet service provider. Several years ago, the city of Hermann, Mo., which is outside of the KTIS exchange, approached KTIS about broadband.
“That’s when we started working with line-of-sight delivery,” said Fugate. The original service to Hermann was through 900-megahertz line-of-sight radio transmission. It was successful enough that KTIS offered a similar service to residents around Fulton, Mo. in 2005. “The 900-megahertz service out of Fulton reached a 10- to 12-mile radius from the tower in town,” said Fugate. “The purpose was to provide a high-speed Internet option for people who didn’t have one.”
When we spoke to Fugate, KTIS was in the process of evaluating equipment that would send signal through the 700-megahertz spectrum, a licensed and more robust signal that is being freed as television broadcasts move to digital delivery.
“With the 900-megahertz equipment we’re using, the base station at the tower has about three megs of capacity, which is basically equivalent to a couple T1 connections,” said Fugate. “And we can get about 60 to 65 subscribers on that equipment. Radio has to work to get the signal to you. The 900-megahertz service will be about 500 kbps download and 128 kbps upload at its fastest. 700-megahertz service is faster, but most people on dial-up are getting about 40 kbps download speed. So even the 900-megahertz transmission is 10 times faster,” said Fugate.
Prices for such service start at $40 per month along with a $200 installation fee.
Fugate said line-of-sight receivers are a good option in suitable terrain but can be affected by weather conditions (as can satellite service). He added that, in the current business environment, line-of-sight and satellite are the most economical solutions to overcome the proverbial last mile.
“But you will find that rural telecos are reaching out,” he said. “In our territory, about 50 percent of customers have Internet in some form. If you look at computer ownership, you can figure out that the other half might not have computers.”

The cellular option
Cellular carriers offer wireless Internet through plug-in cellular modems. But approach this option with caution. Speeds advertised for cellular carriers’ data service are often available only in metro markets. As cellular providers update their networks, and data plans get less expensive, cellular modems may be an option for more rural areas. Current download speeds for the metro markets reach about 600 kbps.

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