The Hole In The Internet
February 26, 2009 I was bumping around YouTube looking at some clips of old British comedy shows I used to watch on PBS years ago (on my lunch hour, of course), when I noticed an article my boss had thrown in my inbox. The article is an indepth report on the state of broadband Internet service in rural America from the magazine Information Week.
Those of you with broadband service are in an elite class, as only one in four rural households can say the same thing. Which, given that the Internet is just slightly over a decade into its mainstream existence might not seem unreasonable. But the reality is, at some point in the not too distant future, not providing high speed access to rural America is going to be competitively crippling.
I understand the frustrations of dial-up in a world built for broadband, as I have not made the investment in high-speed at home, but work on a T1 line here at the office. The difference is ridiculous and getting more ridiculous every day. My wife wanted to download a virus software program update that we ended up cancelling, because the estimated download time exceeded 29 hours.
And forget about streaming anything, unless you like watching a series of still frames moving at about an image every 10 seconds.
The difference for me is, here in the city I have some options, whereas many of you don’t, and won’t for some time to come.
According to the article, there are many emerging technologies that may become available in the longer term. Something called WiMax is described in a fashion that sounds a lot like the real-time kinematic (RTK) tower networks popping up all over the countryside. The Internet is broadcast from a single tower to multiple points within the radius of the broadcasting tower, allowing for broader coverage across many miles.
The good news is that chip makers are starting to include WiMax functionality into computers, but the whole concept is still very much in the pilot stage and might be several years in the making.
I’m not bringing this up to champion the Cotton Belt’s right to enjoy YouTube – not that there’s anything wrong with that – but to point out that around the world, countries are leapfrogging past wired technology and into the lastest high-speed technology. Which is helping the Internet become what it was truly meant to be – the way to equalize commerce and entertainment for everyone, most especially those in the most remote regions.
The question is, can the needle be moved any faster? Would it be possible for the government to intervene in some meaningful way to push private companies along?
Certainly, it’s not unprecidented. One particularly heavy-handed but effective historical example was the television freeze of 1948. When early television was being developed, formats were all over the board. The government essentially froze development for a period of time to set standards for signals and manufacturing, which allowed the fledgling industry to grow and inflitrate the market more rapidly.
A little closer example is that of rural electrification. In 1935, some 90% of people living in the city enjoyed electric power, while only 10% of rural residences had electricity. The Roosevelt Administration, frustrated with the lack of movement from private companies, signed an executive order that paved the way to bringing electricity to rural communities.
Yes, those were different times, and it’s not exactly apples to apples to compare electricity to the Internet – at least not yet.
But it’s clear that the World Wide Web is being seen more and more as a utility not unlike electricity or a television signal. The kinds of communication that get distributed through the Web will increase in importance and intensity.
While government intervention may not be the answer, perhaps at least the threat of it might spur some action. It’s something to think about, and perhaps even chat about with your Congressional representative. Rural America needs broadband.
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