Posted on 04/26/2009 5:25:32 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
Doug King publishes his keyboard music online and his wife, Marjorie, sells home-made pottery to customers in Iceland, China and New Zealand. But doing business from their rural Dane County house is virtually impossible without high-speed Internet.
"We got to the point where we’re simply unable to do business" using the dial-up Internet their phone company provides, King said. The couple finally signed up for a wireless modem from Verizon, which in the last year has sought to build nine cell towers in rural Dane County to keep up with growing demand.
But wireless service isn’t available everywhere, either, leaving thousands of rural Wisconsin homeowners, entrepreneurs and farmers still clamoring for high-speed Internet service.
Help may be on the way after Congress included $7.2 billion in the federal stimulus bill to extend high-speed Internet to rural areas.
Even so, large parts of Wisconsin may lose out on the federal funds because few citizens have responded to a statewide survey aimed at identifying which areas don’t have broadband service — an Internet connection that can process many times more voice, data and video information than dial-up phone lines.
As of April 16, the Public Service Commission, which is conducting the survey, had heard from about 3,900 citizens and businesses representing 85,000 employees. Two-thirds of respondents reported not having access to high-speed Internet service.
The PSC plans to use the survey results to advise the federal government on which local governments and service providers should get stimulus funds, said PSC telecommunications administrator Gary Evenson.
"We’d like to get responses from everyone," Evenson said. "The more responses we get the better."
Like the Kings, Stephanie Elkins, of rural Green County, turned to satellite service after waiting for broadband to come to her area, but "even that is slow and limited," she said.
In 2000, Elkins’ husband Roy founded Broadjam.com, an online music distribution company that had to move to Madison to access faster Internet. In naming the company, they anticipated broadband would be necessary for sharing music files online.
"It’s ironic that here we are 10 years later without any broadband service at our home," Elkins said.
Bill Esbeck, president of the Wisconsin State Telecommunications Association, is skeptical the survey paints an accurate picture of broadband service in the state. He said he would rather see collaboration among telephone, wireless and cable companies to identify where service needs exist.
His concern about the federal funding is that it may come with strings attached. For example, companies that install broadband networks with grant money could be required to share any infrastructure they build.
"Clearly there are companies in Wisconsin that have already made the investment," Esbeck said. He noted a 2007 report from the Federal Communications Commission found Wisconsin telephone companies offer high-speed Internet to 81 percent of the state, one percentage point shy of the national average.
State Sen. Dale Schultz, R-Richland Center, said he has fielded hundreds of complaints from constituents who still can’t get connected. "I’ve got kids who can’t access the Internet to do their homework," Schultz said. "That’s intolerable."
Schultz urged residents to respond to the PSC survey, which will be available at least until summer. Guidelines on federal grant and loan applications are expected by June.
"Our future depends on us being able to access the global marketplace," Shultz said. "We don’t want to be on the wrong side of the digital divide."
Is their roof in orbit? ;o)
this is nonsense.
When I lived in rural Oklahoma we got satellite internet coverage. It was a bit expensive back then, but the monthly charge was only fifty dollars a month. that is not bad for a business...
Of course I meant a satellite dish.
Check out www.dslreports.com under "find service" to see what broadband service is available near you. More typically you get a full bore cable or fiber build out - bringing you cable TV and digital phone service too. That ends up costing you around $100 per month.
Here is an example for central Florida advertised by Comcast. It sounds like a real deal but read the fine print -- you have to get cable TV or phone, and then after 6 months the price goes up:
$19.99 a month for 6 months <== The introductory rate
We deliver speeds way faster than DSL over our advanced fiber-optic network. Offer ends 6/30/09, and is limited to new residential customers with accounts in good standing. Not available in all areas. Offer limited to Performance High-Speed Internet and requires subscription to either Comcast Cable or phone service at regular rates. To qualify for offer, service must be ordered via www.comcast.com. AFTER THE 6 MONTH PROMOTIONAL PERIOD OR IF ANY SERVICE IS DOWNGRADED, COMCAST’S REGULAR CHARGES APPLY UNLESS SERVICE IS CANCELED. SERVICE MAY BE CANCELED BY CALLING 1-800-COMCAST. Comcast’s current monthly service charges for the advertised services range from $42.95 to $59.95, and may vary depending on your area and other Comcast services (if any) received. <=== The real price, plus you have to get cable tv or phone service too!!!
Of course if you are on a hill (rare in Florida, I know) and have a good line of sight to the town where your exterminator is, you could possibly set up a long point to point wireless link (Wi-Fi technology with high gain antennas). Then you get the low cost DSL link and find somebody with a high tower or tree in town you can park your antenna on. Google "Long Range WiFi" to learn about this solution.
I was in exactly the same situation in our rural town a few years ago - we finally got broadband and it is worth the money.
With the communications grid in place now most anyone should be able to get broadband who can also get cell service. At first I though this was going to be the way service was going to go. It still may do so especially when the Bells land cables begin to have aging issues. 5GB a month which is what cell companies offer is not realistic nor practical for the cost.
Satellite such as Hughesnet has too many issues also. I know of no satisfied customers. For one thing in rough terrain you have to be facing south to southwest. Where I live ridges and mountains NE by SW and I'm on the north slope with a high ridge as by backyard.
DSL could be used in rural areas if Bell would upgrade their equipment. I live half mile from Bells SLICK Cabinet. That means thankfully I do get a consistent 49-50K connect speed on dial-up.
There's room fro Hi-Tech in rural areas. My phone exchange was among the first in the nation to go to Electronic Switching. But Ma Bell still left the paper insulated cables that went out after most rains for nearly another decade.
There's money to be make even in rural areas for hi speed Internet service and there is a demand especially in an age where people work from their home and many companies locate there as well for tax purposes. I'll give you an example. We can't get TV from town. The towers are about 12-15 air miles away. So people in the community bought C-Band dishes. We had great TV from around the nation. The networks soon began making deals with big cable and many channels were cut off but small dish came to the rescue. OK fine less maintenance etc and no more delay while the thing hunts the bird. Then again in steps network and Big Cable saying you can't pick up distant big 3 networks due to protect markets. Call you local station and get a waiver. Local station managers were too busy to bother but finally the two Dish companies cut a deal and we got local networks.
About the time that was happening Comcast comes speeding up the main road to establish territory. The went just far enough to get the contract for the area but left many others waiting, and waiting, and still waiting, while their sales department bombards us with calls and flyer's offering service they will not provide.
One Comcast telemarketer at one point promised me cable and Internet in three days. It was an unsolicited call but I said OK the cable stops a half mile away from me. He insisted I would have service in three days. I said do it then. Three days later? Nothing. I called Comcast and they knew nothing about expanding in my area.
I don't expect government to pay for getting internet into rural areas but someone should see it as a market of opportunity. I live off the main road on a dead in road. About 7 homes on a road less than a quarter mile long. All of us would sign up to a reasonable service with reasonable allowed usage. Right now if the cell companies would re-think their strategy they could clean up in my area as the towers are in place.
I have had a business for 35 years, a website for 13 years, all my big wholesale orders and all my retail orders come via email. We did fine on dial-up until my husband bought a laptop. He fumed whenever I, on the main machine, downloaded anything with graphics, because it slowed him down.
We have been bombarded by bundling offers/DSL offers for years. Finally, after realizing that we could get rid of the fax & its extra line, since we rarely use it anymore, we got DSL. We pay about the same for all business communication services, did not bundle, and have less marital strife over who is downloading what and when. True Broadband is not possible yet down in our valley, but then, only some cell service providers work down here. We either have to walk about 50 yards up the back hill or be on the second floor and have the right service provider to get enough bars.
I like the faster service, we can always hook up the fax if we need to send something or use a web-based email-to-fax program. These whiners need to simply call their phone company. I am much more rural than they are, live in Wisconsin and all it took was one visit to the phone company, less than a half-hour for setting up the new modem and my bill is the same as with dial-up.
We know what you meant. I just felt like pulling your cable cord. (runs away) =)
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