As the United States recovers from the great recession,
it is even more critical to focus on broadband deployment to ensure
that Americans have the necessary tools to compete
worldwide. This is the first of a series of articles that
addresses broadband deployment, with recommendations for its
improvement. This article focuses on rural broadband
deployment.
Broadband allows users to reach the Internet at higher speeds
than they could with traditional modems. Broadband uses data
processing capabilities that compress voice, video, and data
information into bits that become words, pictures, charts, graphs,
or other images on computer, wireless phones, or screens.
High-speed Internet access allows information downloads at
significantly higher speeds than traditional modems. It also allows
online access without tying up telephone lines, videoconferencing,
and access to entertainment resources. Broadband access comes in
several flavors, including Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), cable
modem access, fixed and mobile wireless, satellite Internet, and
Fiber to the Home (FTTH).
Wi-Fi, or wireless fidelity, allows Internet access by
short-range signals, and it is available at thousands of hotspots
around the country. WiMAX, or Worldwide Interoperability for
Microwave Access, is a standards-based wireless technology that
provides high-throughput broadband connections over long distances.
WiMAX is
similar to Wi-Fi, but it permits usage over much greater
distances.
Federal legislation clearly favors rural broadband deployment.
Section 706 of the 1996 Telecommunications Act requires the FCC to
encourage the deployment on a reasonable and timely basis of
advanced telecommunications capability to all Americans. The Act
also mandates that consumers in rural, insular, and highcost areas
should have access to services and rates that are reasonably
comparable to those in urban areas. On February 17, 2009, Congress
passed the Recovery Act, which charged the FCC with developing a
national broadband plan that seeks to ensure that all Americans
have broadband access. In response to this Congressional mandate,
the FCC recently delivered to Congress a national broadband plan
for robust broadband capability for Americans with benchmarks for
meeting that goal.
Broadband deployment in rural areas is critical for economic
development, growth, jobs, education, tele-medicine and other
data-centric services, and for the United States to remain
competitive with other countries. But rural broadband deployment in
the United States considerably lags broadband
use in urban areas. In light of this need, Congress passed the 2008
Farm Bill, which recognized the critical need for broadband in
rural areas. That law requires the FCC Chairman, in coordination
with the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), to
submit a report describing a comprehensive rural broadband strategy
to Congress. On May 22, 2009, the FCC submitted its Bringing
Broadband to Rural America Report on a Rural Broadband Strategy to
Congress (FCC Report).
According to data in the FCC Report, in comparison to non-rural
areas, broadband services are less extensively adopted in rural
areas due in part to less extensive deployment of broadband
capability in rural areas. Specifically, 57-60 percent of urban and
suburban residents have broadband at home, as compared to only 38
percent of rural residents according to the FCC Report. In 2007, 54
percent of urban households had broadband in the home, while only
39 percent of rural households did, according to the NTIA. This
shows that broadband deployment in urban and suburban areas is
almost twice that of rural areas, and that broadband deployment in
urban and suburban areas is growing considerably faster than in
rural areas.
So why is there reduced broadband capability in rural areas?
There are several reasons. First, there is more broadband
technology available in urban than in rural areas. The FCC Report
found that although mobile broadband networks cover 95.6 percent of
the total U.S., population, they cover only 82.8 percent of the
U.S. rural population compared with 99.0 percent of the non-rural
population. This stems from the faster payback on network
deployment in more densely populated areas, and greater usage of
the network and resulting revenues in more populated areas. Lack of
available capital for rural broadband deployment is another factor.
Distance, demand, socio-economic factors, local topography,
unfavorable weather and difficult environmental conditions may
further complicate rural broadband deployment.
To meet these challenges, resources have been devoted to rural
broadband deployment. In the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
of 2009, also known as the stimulus package, Congress appropriated
$7.2 billion for broadband grants, loans, and loan guarantees. The
FCC has also made several recommendations to spur rural broadband
deployment, including assessing rural broadband needs, coordination
between federal agencies, state and local authorities, and
community groups, streamlining existing federal programs, and
possible redeployment of spectrum
for more efficient use. The FCCs rules that would allow unused
airwaves (white spaces) abutting broadcast television spectrum to
be used for wireless broadband should also promote wireless
broadband access across rural America. The
FCC has also attempted to expand broadband availability through
universal service policies, but it declined to adopt the Joint
Boards recommendation to make broadband a supported service under
the High Cost Program.
Given that broadband needs and solutions vary by region, the
FCCs assessment of broadband demand and availability is critical.
Without accurately assessing rural broadband demand, it is
impossible to efficiently allocate resources to match existing
broadband needs. Moreover, assessing broadband availability through
coordination of broadband mapping efforts is critical to identify
and track broadband service availability and infrastructure
deployment. An aggressive schedule to assess broadband demand and
availability is critical.
Once broadband demand and availability are accurately
determined, resources can be more efficiently deployed to meet
rural broadband needs. The $7.2 billion stimulus funds allocated
for broadband grants, together with available Universal Service
funds, should, at least initially, help to satisfy funding
requirements.
Competitive bidding may also help to meet broadband needs.
Municipal broadband projects and industry responses to broadband
requests for proposals may also help to address broadband demand,
notwithstanding the ongoing debate over the use of taxpayer-funded
municipal broadband projects to satisfy broadband demand.
Building the broadband information highway is fundamentally
similar to meeting infrastructure demands that Americans have
successfully tackled for decades. Once broadband demand and
availability are identified, an appropriate solution can be
tailored to fit the situation with available resources.
We welcome your thoughts.
© 2010 Technology Law Group.
Craig Dingwall is an attorney with the Technology Law Group, a
Washington, D.C.-based technology law firm specializing and complex
litigation and transactions. Craig can be reached at
cdingwall@tlgdc.com, at 202-895-1707, or at our website: www.tlgdc.com. The views in this article are
those of the author, and do not necessary represent those of the
Technology Law Group.
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