"Coordination of Broadband Service Access, Quality Essential to Economic Health of Pennsylvania"

By Amy Glasmeier and Larry Wood

From "Penn State Live"

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While metropolitan regions of the state enjoy a variety of broadband services from pioneering telecom companies, rural areas are less likely to have access to advanced telecommunications services. A lack of broadband competition in rural areas means that now and possibility in the future many residents and businesses in the state will have access to only relatively inferior broadband service. To improve the competitiveness of all communities in the state, Pennsylvania needs to guide the coordination and future development of broadband services to ensure a consistent level of high quality, reasonably priced services to all rural and metropolitan areas.

The Center for Rural Pennsylvania, a bipartisan legislative agency, has issued a new report, "Broadband Internet Service in Rural and Urban Pennsylvania: A Common Wealth or Digital Divide?" In the report, we found that nationally Pennsylvania's telecommunications providers are among the country's corporate leaders in broadband telecommunications infrastructures. And yet, inaction, poor coordination and limited cooperation among providers and communities could jeopardize the availability and effectiveness of this new technology for rural users.

Advanced telecommunications infrastructures are decisive factors in today's business location decisions and are essential to attracting new business and industries to rural areas in the future. These services are essential for spurring entrepreneurial activity, creating more jobs, and supporting telecommuting workers living in rural areas.

In Pennsylvania, business users depend on the Internet for communication, accessing and transferring information and data, advertising, sales and purchases. Many firms indicated they transfer large amounts of data, made economical on broadband rather than dial-up services. Availability of service is therefore key to their success. As the demand for and the use of Broadband continue to grow, reliability and cost competition become essential factors in ensuring high quality service availability.

The importance of having reliable and cost-effective broadband in Pennsylvania's rural communities cannot be overstated. For the 2.8 million residents and thousands of businesses in rural communities, broadband is a critical link to the future. Interviews with Pennsylvania's rural businesses indicate Internet use is becoming vital. Many businesses already use the Internet to conduct business. But not everyone has access. While broadband services are readily available in metropolitan areas, many small towns, non-metropolitan communities and rural areas are without any availability. More important, the lack of competition in broadband in rural areas, often leads to low speeds and poor quality.

Broadband services in the report are defined as technologies that allow users to connect to the Internet as 5-10 times the speed, if not a few hundred times, of a dial-up connection. However, not all available services include access to interactive real-time applications such as videoconferencing.

Several state-level government agencies currently monitor, evaluate and promote the use of broadband. The Department of Education, the Public Utility Commission and the Office of Information Technology all are advocates of the technology. Federal partners include the Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration, and the Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service. Based on more than 100 detailed interviews with members of the telecommunications industry, including the majority of incumbent local telephone providers and more than 40 forty cable companies operating in the state, and close to 200 interviews with user firms we conclude the state needs to actively assess the supply and demand for broadband services; develop an effective, timely way to share information and create policy among industry, government and community agencies; and establish a policy definition of universal access as a way to measure and compare services.

In the absence of alternatives, policy makers are likely to set policy that pinpoints select technologies, rather than technical capability as measured by target speeds, costs, quality of service and universal access. An alternative and key policy strategy should be making sure that all areas of the state not only receive the current standards in broadband services, but are in line to receive exceptional standards of such service. Another priority would be to experiment with selective subsidies for those who cannot afford broadband.

Inferior broadband services affect social and economic problems in rural communities. Advances in healthcare and education may be limited to metropolitan areas without adequate telecommunications services available in the state's rural communities. Pennsylvania can be a leader in broadband and telecommunications service availability in rural areas. Many of the telecommunications industries have already set up advanced infrastructures here. But figuring out how to serve the 'last mile' remains a critical element if the state wishes to help rural Pennsylvania catch up on the information superhighway.

Dr. Amy Glasmeier, professor of economic geography, and Larry Wood, graduate student in economic geography, are lead authors of the report.