Communications

The World Wide Wait (WWW) in Rural Markets

Nearly 67 million Americans live in rural areas.   In 2010, the FCC established the benchmark for basic broadband access at 4 Mbps downstream and 1 Mbps upstream.  Based on that definition 65% of all Americans have broadband, but only 50% who live in rural markets meet the criteria.  In fact, 18 million rural Americans (28%) cannot get broadband access at these speeds versus 3% of non-rural Americans.  

We would argue the FCC standard is no longer acceptable when considering the requirements for high-definition multimedia, video and file downloads.  The widespread propogation of IP devices and streaming HDTV channels that require 5 to 10 Mbps of bandwidth or about five times more than standard  definition TV, has created exponetial demand for bandwidth at higher speeds. 

Without this data throughput ... you get what we call the "world-wide-wait" in rural markets for most of today's high-bandwidth applications.   

The problemin rural markets is lack of alternaive and affordable service.  In fact the NTIA estimates that4% ofAmericans cannot get any broadband service, 12% onlyhave just one service provider and 44% have two providers.   Almost all rural subscribers fall into these three categories. 

Broadband communications will stimulate the economy.  The accompanying chart suggests the cumuluative effect of having fixed and modile wireless, plus cable and fiber broadband access in a rural market can stimulate economic growth in the area by as much as 3% in even low tomiddle income areas.   A combination of fiber and wireless communications enable applications such as home energy management, video on demand, video conferencing, distance learning and telemedicine.