The Center for Rural Pennsylvania has issued a new report, "Broadband Internet Service in Rural and Urban Pennsylvania: A Common Wealth or Digital Divide?" A bipartisan agency serving as a resource for rural policy within the Pennsylvania General Assembly, the Center works with executive agencies and federal, regional and community organizations to maximize resources and strategies that serve the needs of Pennsylvania's 2.8 million rural residents.
"Pennsylvania's telecommunications providers are among the country's leaders in broadband telecommunications infrastructures," says Dr. Amy K. Glasmeier, professor, and Larry Wood, graduate student, both of economic geography at Penn State, and lead authors of the report. ''Pennsylvania can be a national leader in this area, but 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 a decisive factor 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, " they add.
Glasmeier, Wood, and Andrew Kleit, all researchers in Penn State's College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, and Professor Sharon Strover, director of Telecommunications and Information Policy Institute, University of Texas, conducted the research and analysis, and prepared the report for the Center for Rural 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 key to their success.
"As the demand for and the use of broadband continues to grow, reliability and cost competition become essential factors in ensuring high quality service availability," says the researchers. "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," says the researchers. "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.
The team conducted 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. Close to 200 user firms also were interviewed as part of the research.
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.
"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," recommend the authors.
The researchers caution against setting a policy that pinpoints select technologies, but instead, suggests attention should target speeds, costs, quality of service and universal access.
"A 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," Glasmeier and Wood say. "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, the report noted.
"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," the researchers say. "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."