tv is important by A_of_Doom
My folks live in the very house that I grew up in, and cable television still isn’t available in their area – also eliminating the option for cable broadband internet. Their local AT&T telephone service said the current telephone wires and connection boxes in place are too old to support DSL broadband, and that is also the reason why their current dial up internet access is about half as slow as it should be (resulting in some truly sluggish speeds). Reliable cell phone service is also hit or miss, and the only 3G network available for them is three people at the gossip fence. Apparently this is also the case for many rural communities, as high speed internet access is either unavailable or comes at a premium price many rural Americans cannot afford.
Thanks to a new company providing high speed rural internet service through a fixed point wireless connection, my parents now have an affordable means to connect to the information super highway through a line-of-sight wireless connection to a tower over five miles away from their house. Previous efforts from their local cooperative electric service provider proved unsuccessful when a wi-fi tower was erected less than two miles away. Turns out it was blocked because the trees were too tall for their connection to work in that direction.
Can you imagine life today without the benefits of high speed internet access? 68 percent of today’s high school students say that the internet is their primary source for homework research, and more than 75 percent of Fortune 500 companies only accept online job applications.
Many rural residents are still missing out on some basic internet opportunities that many of us can take for granted nowadays such as: electronic bill payments, banking online, online stock trading, travel planning and reservations, holiday shopping, and internet dating. Not to mention the social media phenomenon, which is still experiencing exponential growth.
The cost of this digital exclusion – The Great Digital Divide – has real consequences and is affecting the way of life for the “unserved” and “underserved” broadband internet population. There is a great study by the USDA’s Economic Research Service called Broadband Internet’s Value for Rural America that showcases the value of broadband internet service, especially in our recessionary economy, where online job searches and online education opportunities are essential.
The good news is that there is currently a Broadband Initiative funded by a $7.2 billion stimulus from the federal government. In the process of deciding where these funds are needed most, up to $350 million is being used to map out the U.S.’s current broadband services and areas of those who are in need. This map should detail where high speed internet service is available and how fast it is, helping us shape broadband policies for the future.
What could this information mean to the search marketing industry and your e-commerce business? If this map becomes available as public information, which I hope it is since we’re all paying for it one way or another, there lies within a wealth of data – a treasure map of sorts. Each of these underserved or non-existent broadband areas will be charted down to the individual zip code on a national map, and this brings to mind many opportunities for geo-targeted PPC campaigns.
How about targeting computer and networking products and services to the rural population in these underserved areas? Many of these folks will be just beginning their foray into the information age, and starting from square one. What about the broadband service providers themselves? Those who do receive some of the broadband stimulus money from the government for funding and implementing their services should be well in place and easily found online well before the unserved and underserved public start looking for them.
My parents have been busy catching up to the times, thanks to their new broadband service. They have been online for two months now and have already placed and received orders for a wi-fi router in their home, a laptop PC, a high efficiency industrial wood stove, a chainsaw and kayaking equipment. They’ve also already started their holiday shopping. They have planned and made reservations for a spring break getaway, and are currently doing research for a new snowblower and ATV (to be delivered right to their door).
These purchases could have been sales for your e-commerce business – it just takes the magic and know how of a well targeted PPC campaign to serve your ads when and where these new buyers are looking. Call Oneupweb if you need help getting your new PPC campaign started, or to take your current campaign to a whole new level. It takes time, patience, and know how to do this right, and we’re darn good at what we do!
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Lawrence, you really are a terrific writer. I’m glad there’s a place that I can read your work.
I read your article as a result of the comment you made to the Marc Capancioni article in the Sault Star. I could very easily substitute the pure US references with Canadian references and it would describe the situation in rural Canada.
Canada is currently under a mapping process and a multimillion dollar programme to provide service. (I wish it were the $40 billion like Australia but I’ll take what I can get.)
Like the US and unlike some other countries broadband (high-speed Internet) service in Canada is a profit driven private sector enterprise. The majority of rural Canada will end up with a wireless solution which will be barely adequate in few years. In fact, wireless is the solution being installed in the Stokely area.
In my view, the best solution is 3G/4G for both telephone and broadband (high-speed Internet) service; do away with the landlines. At the moment 3G/4G broadband (high-speed Internet) is too expensive for the non-business user i.e. the average resident. Once 3G/4G becomes pervasive, it will drop in price and become more affordable.
Thanks for the comments Jake and Wilf – glad you enjoyed the reading!
I just read another interesting article centered around our local Northern Michigan paradise. The Petoskey, MI area’s Northern Michigan Broadband Cooperative applied for funding made available under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. They had a really well written white paper on the subject and their trials and tribulations of bringing their rural population up to speed broadband wise.
A co-worker of mine has been talking lately about his cell service and access to the recently available 3G network – which is still a little hit or miss depending on location around Traverse City – either way, it sounds like progress. My parents living near Sault Ste. Marie still can’t get reliable cell service at their home, so the 3G/4G network still sounds like a Star Trek technology to them up there.
Here are the links to the article in the Petoskey News and the Northern Michigan Broadband Cooperative white paper. Good reading!
Article:
http://www.petoskeynews.com/articles/2009/09/30/news/doc4ac3664f6d1c6225713112.txt
White Paper:
http://www.petoskeynews.net/images/editorial/NorthernMichiganBroadbandCooperativeWhitePaper.pdf
Thanks for your article Lawrence, you make the case for rural connectivity well. I work with a rural community network in southeastern BC and was initially excited about the Federal funding program until I read this the programs guide:
“Broadband connectivity is defined as access to Internet service that supports data transmission at a minimum download speed of 1.5 Mbps to the household. The program has a minimum target upload speed of 384 kbps. For both upload and download, the program expects a maximum oversubscription ratio of 10:1 on access bandwidth to backhaul bandwidth when the total number of users per node is 100 or less. The acceptable oversubscription ratio would scale linearly up to 50:1 as the number of users on a node approaches 10,000″
This means that in order to serve 100 subscribers, for example, an internet provider must dedicate 15mbps of backhaul in order to be eligible for funding. That will be challenging for small providers to finance, and seems unreasonable. In fact the program seems slanted toward funding national satellite internet provision. Anyway, you can view the above at Broadban Canada’s website directly:
http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/719.nsf/eng/h_00004.html#Q5
Cheers, Bob
Thanks for reading and joining the conversation Bob!
I just read an interesting article on MinnPost.com about some areas in the rural and remote areas of northern Minnesota (Cook’s County), and how some of their local citizens voicing their opinions.
http://www.minnpost.com/stories/2009/10/05/12114/broadband_connectivity_is_a_big_issue_in_rural_and_remote_parts_of_minnesota
The writer quoted some convincing information from a local professor who is on the MN Ultra High-Speed Broadband Task Force (Jack Geller from the University of Minnesota Crookston) who spoke on some interesting parallels of the available broadband internet service to that of the private railroad, vs. the tax paid highway system.
“”Information Superhighway” is the metaphor we typically ascribe to the medium enabling this revolution. Your typical highway, though, is built with tax dollars. Everyone can drive on it. And we expect the government to maintain it — again, with tax dollars.
In contrast, connectivity has emerged more like a railroad than a highway, said Geller at the University of Minnesota Crookston. “I build tracks, and I run my cars on my tracks,” he said. “If you want to run your cars on these tracks, you have to pay me for it. And if you try to compete with me, I will fight that.” Connectivity is a private service for the most part, he said: “If you can afford it, you get it. If you can’t, you don’t.”"
It appears that there are many of our fellow citizens throughout our our Great Lakes Region and neighboring states that are still on the fringes of technology because they live or work in these rural dead zones. It’s comforting to know that there are programs in place to bring them up to speed internet wise, and that the government believes in nobody left behind in this Information Age.
Tune in and I’ll try and keep us posted on the latest…Hang on – it’s gonna be a wild ride!”
I have not been able to figure out why ILEC phone companies are letting all of this rural connectivity slip out from their fingers. As broadband technology hits more and more of rural america phone subscriptions from ILEC carriers get turned off. I think that the ILEC phone companies have a death wish. By plowing fiber to the home, (not all at once but as old twisted pair lines need replacing), they have the chance to provide truely high speed broadband service, up-to-date phone services, cable and anything else that can be stuffed down a piece of glass fiber. HEY PHONE COMPANIES! WAKE UP!
Thanks for tuning in, Jeff.
It’s very insightful researching some of the history on the ILECs and the impact of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. I found this interesting graph and report by the consulting and research company, Technology Futures Inc.. This graph really helped me to visualize the present state and the forcasted decline of the ILEC lines.
The article reads: “As shown in the above forecast figure (Figure 6.1 in report), the growth of broadband lines on digital subscriber line (DSL) has helped stabilize the total number of incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) lines (narrowband and broadband) to about 180 million lines. However, as is clear from the forecast, even with the continued growth of broadband, soon the total number of ILEC lines will likely decline dramatically, because further additions in broadband connections cannot make up for the precipitous decline in narrowband access lines. Also illustrated is the forecast transition from standard broadband to very high speed (VHS) broadband.”
I would like to read more about this in the “Forecasts of Access Line Competition in the Local Exchange: Forth Edition”, but the $1,495.00 price tag for the full report has stopped me short.
You never did mention what service your parents were able to get? I’ll read it all again to make sure….
Hi Tammy!
Thanks for reading! The high speed internet service my parents were able to receive was from a local company called Nodin Wifi. It’s headquartered in Sault Ste. Marie, MI. Their service reach currently extends to most areas of the Chippewa and Mackinac Counties of Michigan, and they have been expanding their services to include some of the more desolate and underserved areas of the Eastern Upper Peninsula. Their hub is located on top of the Tower of History in downtown Sault Ste. Marie.
http://nodincomm.com
Thanks!