#174 - High Speed Internet for Everyone

Roughly 40 percent of Americans do not have high-speed Internet access at home, according to new Commerce Department figures that underscore the challenges facing policymakers who are trying to bring affordable broadband connections to everyone.

In the Highlands of Virginia, some interesting changes are taking place. The Highlands have two high speed Internet providers. Shentel, the cable company, and nTelos the telephone company. Both have recently updated to fiber optic technology and can provide fairly fast Internet to many. Unfortunately there are still areas that have to rely on dialup or satellite Internet (MUCH SLOWER!).

nTelos has just received an $8 million grant that it will match to provide fiber optic Internet to every household in Alleghany County. The money comes from one of the stimulus packages. The time table is to complete this project by 2012. There are many of my customers who can hardly wait for this to happen. High speed (also called broadband) Internet has become a necessity in the USA. So much of our society has swung to doing day to day business on the Internet.

My mom is a good example of this. During our evening call last night, she asked if I could do her a favor. She had recently bought a new vacuum cleaner with a two year warranty. To activate the warranty she needed to register the vacuum on line. Mom has dial up Internet in Ohio (by choice - High Speed is available) and she said it was too slow so could I help? Well, of course i could, but I thought it was interesting that even vacuum cleaner manufacturers are using the Internet for day to day business.

The USA needs more projects like this nTelos one to get 100% high speed Internet coverage throughout the land. We have had 98% telephone (land line) coverage in this country for years. Next month, the Federal Communications Commission will deliver policy recommendations to Congress on how to make universal broadband a reality. Among other things, the FCC is expected to propose expanding the fund that subsidizes telephone service in poor and rural communities and finding more airwaves for wireless broadband services.