Robert Anderson equates Rhode Island’s broadband network to a high-speed highway system without any road signs or maps.
As companies and state officials seek to expand the state’s online freeway they operate without basic information, such as the availability and speeds of Internet connections. That makes it awfully hard to pitch a business plan or secure a grant, said Anderson, CEO of Barrington-based WindTalk, a company that works to bring broadband to rural areas across the country.
In response to the dearth of available information, WindTalk created its own map of Rhode Island broadband connections. But Anderson said not everyone can do that. Hence, a stimulus-funded project by the R.I. Economic Development Corporation to collect and verify the availability, speed and location of broadband across Rhode Island should help fill that void, Anderson said. The Rhode Island Broadband Mapping Program will also provide another tool to economic officials as they attempt to woo companies with big technology needs to the state.
“It’s import to understand what the landscape looks like,” Anderson said. “It’s very important from a standpoint of understanding how to leverage infrastructure and grow an economy.”
The $1.5 million in federal money comes in two parts: $1 million to develop a map, with the remaining $500,000 to support five years of broadband-planning activities.
The money was awarded by the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which plans to create a national broadband map by February 2011.
EDC spokeswoman Meaghan Wims said that as of Jan. 6 the agency had yet to select a contractor to undertake the mapping. EDC staff in charge of the project did not immediately return calls seeking comment last week.
Anderson, whose company submitted a bid for the mapping project, thinks the final map will show what is already well-known in industry circles: that Rhode Island has excellent broadband coverage thanks primarily to Cox Communications Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc.
A spokeswoman for Cox said the company already is available to 98 percent of the state’s homes. And a spokeswoman for Verizon said it can service 99 percent of the state with either DSL or FiOS, the company’s high-speed Internet service. What remains, both spokeswomen said, was improving access for people that may sit near a high-speed line but do not tap into it for economic, technological or other reasons.
Jeff Thompson, president of Middletown-based Towerstream Corp., said adoption is also fueled by price, which can be lowered when competition enters a market.
“It’s great to say we have 100 percent coverage in a market but that doesn’t mean everyone is going to get service because it might be very expensive,” he said.
Thompson’s company delivers high-speed Internet via a wireless network to customers in Providence and nine other markets, often at prices below the dominant broadband providers. To justify the economic viability of their service – and the company’s requests for stimulus grants – Thompson said Towersteam needed to go hunting for data.
“The mapping part was very difficult and very expensive to get that data from third parties because you can’t just call up the incumbents and ask them for information,” Thompson said, adding that big broadband providers are often reluctant to tip their hand about connections for fear of competition. He supports the EDC mapping project.
The public information to come out of the mapping project excites George Loftus, executive director of OSHEAN, a group of universities, hospitals and other nonprofits that partner on technology needs. The group is looking to tap into $7.2 billion in federal stimulus money for broadband projects. It has already submitted applications totaling $25 million that would string fiber-optic cable in some of the state’s more rural areas, bring mobile computing labs and more computers to the state’s public libraries, and help establish computer centers at housing complexes run by the Providence Housing Authority.
“It can only help us,” Loftus said. “One of the things we learned when the economic stimulus money became available was having a plan in place, and knowing where you want to move forward really helps you move quickly.”
Loftus and Anderson said Cox and Verizon have already established robust networks, but some areas remain without service. And they and other for-profit companies are unlikely to enter the most rural parts of the state where the cost of installing the infrastructure would not pay off. Both said the planning money could help lead to innovative solutions to bringing high-speed Internet access to those people, who reside mostly in the northwestern part of the state or on Block Island.
“We just can’t leave those people waiting,” Loftus said. “We’ve got to come up with a solution.”
One solution could be the one proposed by OSHEAN. Loftus said the organization envisions running fiber-optic cable along the northern portion of Route 102. A partner could tap into that cable and install wireless networks that could reach homes far from the road.
Bringing the nation’s rural populations onto America’s high-speed network is critically important, said Art Brodsky, director of communications for Public Knowledge, a public interest group that studies technology issues.
Brodsky said high-speed Internet is becoming a necessity. Job applications are going online, newspapers are publishing online and even instructions for industrial machines are hosted on Web sites.
“The whole underlying point is, broadband is service for the economy much as telephone and electricity was for the 19th and 20th centuries,” Brodsky said.
With the Internet playing a large role in society, Brodsky said it is important for states to take the mapping and planning seriously.
“The whole point of this endeavor is to get an honest view of where broadband is and isn’t,” he said. •
