Making Rural Broadband Work
Examples | How Does it Work? | Entrepreneurship Opportunities | News & Resources | Learn More
Only 38 percent of rural Americans have access to a high-speed internet connection, 20% less than those in urban areas. High-speed internet is revolutionizing the way we do business, interact with our government, and is a necessary utility equivalent to electricity in the 1930s.
A vibrant future for entrepreneurship in rural America will require abundant, affordable and open high-speed internet access to rural communities.
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Photo by Chaz Dixon and used here under Creative Commons license. See more of Dixon's work here. |
The choices for internet access can be confusing, so to help you understand your options we've put together a page that discusses advantages and disadvantages of each. Keep in mind that not all of them may be available where you live. One of our staff members recently documented her quest for internet in this blog post.
Federal programs can help rural communities gain access to affordable, reliable high-speed broadband.
- Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP) from the US Department of Agriculture
- Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) at the Department of Commerce National Telecommunications & Information Administration
- Southwest Michigan Communications received a $4 million loan and $4 million grant from the Broadband Initiatives Program in March of 2010 to construct a fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) network that will cover the rural areas of its exchange areas, providing advanced broadband services to the residents in the rural Paw Paw area.
- The City of Windom Southwest Minnesota Broadband Group (SWMBG) received a $6.3 million loan and $6.3 million grant from the Broadband Initiatives Program in February of 2010 to build fiber-to-the-premises infrastructure to eight rural communities throughout southwestern Minnesota. The network will consist of a 125 mile fiber ring which will connect eight communities and a fiber network open to other providers for provision of wireless services, dark fiber services and competitive services to SWMBG.
- The C-M-L Telephone Cooperative Association in Iowa received a $1.5 million grant from the Broadband Initiatives Program to provide broadband service via fiber optic network to rural Iowa communities, including Archer and Meriden. The C-M-L Telephone Cooperative Association will offer services to include high-speed Internet exceeding 20 Mbps, digital television, and telephone service.
- The New Mexico State Library with additional partners received a $1.5 million grant from the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program. The project intends to reach vulnerable populations, Hispanic and Native American users, small businesses, and entrepreneurs through small group trainings at public and Tribal libraries in 15 communities across the state. The partners estimate the project will result in 3,000 new household broadband subscribers, 1,000 new business and institutional broadband subscribers, and 3,200 new users at public computer centers.
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Listen to an audio program from the Texas Department of Agriculture on rural broadband here. |
- The Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP) has three types of projects:
- Satellite – A project that would provide satellite broadband service to unserved rural locations (including households, businesses, public safety units, and key community facilities), either by funding customer-premises equipment, terrestrial equipment and/or by providing discounted broadband service for one year at minimum.
- Technical Assistance – Programs that work in public/private partnerships to develop a USDA-approved regional plan to provide broadband service in rural areas that remain critically unserved. Grants in this category can be made up to $200,000. Applications for Technical Assistance grants will be accepted in paper form only.
- Rural Library Broadband – A project that provides broadband service to a library in a rural area.
- The Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) has three types of projects:
- Comprehensive Community Infrastructure: Projects to deploy new or improved broadband Internet facilities (e.g., laying new fiber-optic cables or upgrading wireless towers) and to connect “community anchor institutions” such as schools, libraries, hospitals, and public safety facilities. These networks help ensure sustainable community growth and provide the foundation for enhanced household and business broadband Internet services.
- Public Computer Centers: Projects to establish new public computer facilities or upgrade existing ones that provide broadband access to the general public or to specific vulnerable populations, such as low-income individuals, the unemployed, seniors, children, minorities, and people with disabilities.
- Sustainable Broadband Adoption: Projects that focus on increasing broadband Internet usage and adoption, including among vulnerable populations where broadband technology traditionally has been underutilized. Many projects include digital literacy training and outreach campaigns to increase the relevance of broadband in people’s everyday lives.
Eligibility
- Applicants must demonstrate the project can be substantially completed within two years of the grant issuance date and fully completed within three.
- Applicants must propose to offer “broadband” service (as defined below) or sufficient capacity in a middle-mile project to support “broadband” service to end users.
- For any project requesting over $1 million, the applicant must submit a system design, and a project timeline certified by a professional engineer in order to demonstrate that the proposed project is technically feasible.
- The applicant must demonstrate that at least 75% of the proposed funded area qualifies as rural area without sufficient access to broadband service to facilitate rural economic development.
- Rural Utilities Service will not fund more than one project to serve any given geographic region
- Disadvantaged and small businesses who meet the definition under section 8(a) of the Small Business Act will be awarded an additional point during evaluations
Definitions
Bandwidth- a connection's capacity to transfer data
BIP - Broadband Initiatives Program from USDA
Bit - basic unit of information in computing and telecommunications
BTOP - Broadband Technology Opportunities Program at the Department of Commerce National Telecommunications & Information Administration
Broadband - For the purposes of these programs, broadband is “two-way data transmission with advertised speeds of at least 768 kbps downstream and at least 200kbps upstream to end user.”
Byte - Another basic unit of information in computing. There are 8 bits in 1 byte.
Dark Fiber - a term used to describe fiber optic cable that is not being used at the time. The amount of dark fiber, particularly in the United States, is very high. Dark fiber is contrasted with active fiber optic cable, often referred to as lit cable.
FTTP (Fiber-to-the premises) - this term is used where optical fiber is used to create a connectivity network including both homes and small businesses
Kbps (Kilobits per second) - unit of speed for internet connection
Mbps (Megabits per second) - unit of speed for internet connection
Entrepreneurship Opportunities
Creating rural jobs using broadband access requires innovative entrepreneurial skills in addition to being tech savvy. Here are some examples:
- The town of Ten Sleep, WY was able to recruit Eleutian because of their fast internet access, and now 20% of its residents work for the company at an average of $15/hour
- After 80 years of sharing cheese with the community of Fresno, OH, Pearl Valley Cheese can now market to a whole world of new customers through broadband access
- The Rural Learning Center has brought new life to Howard, SD, spurred by visionary leaders and very fast broadband.
- The town of Meeteetse, WY is using the internet to recruit new residents, advertise businesses, and attract tourists.
Stimulus Stirs Debate of Rural Broadband Access (NPR)
Rural Broadband - Boost or Bust for Small Business?: A radio segment featuring staff from the Center for Rural Affairs
USDA Broadband Initiatives Program Round 1 Announcements
Rural Utilities Service website on broadband
Broadband USA: The portal to apply for broadband funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
Broadband Initiatives Program
Department of Commerce National Telecommunications & Information Administration Broadband Technology Opportunities Program
Applications database for BTOP
Rural Broadband on Wikipedia
Broadband Opportunities for Rural America
BIP guide
BTOP Project Information outlines each award
Frequently Asked Questions for BTOP and BIP
High Speed Internet Access Guide: An excellent resource for information about the types of connections available and also provides information for specific providers for quick comparisons.
For more information on rural broadband issues, contact Steph Larsen at StephL@cfra.org or call 402-687-2100
