Rural Broadband Update Trumpets Administration Efforts But Says Gap Still ‘Significant’
The U.S. has made “significant progress” on getting fast Internet service to rural areas, but “the broadband deployment and adoption gaps” remain “significant,” the FCC said in an update on rural broadband released Wednesday. Nearly 19 million rural Americans lack access to fixed broadband of at least 3 Mbps downstream and 768 kbps up, the commission said in its update to the 2009 rural broadband report. That population accounts for nearly three-quarters of the nation’s broadband “gap,” the report said. “Close to three out of ten rural Americans -- 28.2 percent -- lack access to fixed broadband at 3 Mbps/768 kbps or faster, a percentage that is more than nine times as large as the 3.0 percent that lack access in non-rural areas."
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The Obama administration has made efforts to close the so-called digital divide -- including the broadband grants and loans programs, freeing up new spectrum and the pending Universal Service Fund reforms -- the report said. “Many of these actions … are nascent; their full impact has not yet been realized and may be difficult to measure for some time.” Nonetheless, “it is clear that much more remains to be done to ensure that every American has the opportunity to participate in the broadband era,” the report said.
Rural Americans are also lagging behind the rest of the country in broadband subscription rates, the FCC said. Only “18.9 percent of households in rural areas subscribe to a 3 Mbps/768 kbps or faster fixed broadband service compared to 33.6 percent of households in the U.S. as a whole,” the report said.
The wireless parts of the report touch broadly on initiatives to get more spectrum in play for mobile broadband. The report mentioned the signal booster inquiry and proposals on wireless backhaul, secondary markets for spectrum and additional incentives to build out in rural areas and on tribal lands. “As part of a data-driven and transparent approach to spectrum management, the Commission has completed a baseline spectrum inventory that has resulted in the release of two tools -- LicenseView and the Spectrum Dashboard -- that reflect the Commission’s understanding of where the most significant spectrum opportunities lie,” the report said. “These initiatives should increase spectrum access for wireless broadband in all areas of the country, including in rural areas, and should spur substantial innovation, investment, and economic growth of the nation.” The report makes a brief mention of satellite broadband, without promoting its use.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said the update’s findings are “not acceptable.” “Too many Americans, particularly in rural areas, are still being left out of our broadband economy,” he said. “The Commission’s 2009 rural broadband report highlighted our inability to answer a simple question: What is the current state of broadband in rural America? Today we have meaningful insight into rural broadband deployment.”
The original rural report was released under then-acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps, who described it as a curtain-raiser to the National Broadband Plan (CD May 28/09 p1). Under Genachowski, the commission has now twice concluded that the nation’s broadband isn’t being deployed reasonably or in a timely manner as required by Section 706 of the Telecom Act. Those findings have since become key elements in the commission’s net neutrality, pole attachment and data roaming orders as well as the Universal Service Fund proceeding.