Rural Access: More Capacity Than One Might Think

The popular sterotype is that rural America does not have broadband and that service providers refuse to offer it. Like all stereotypes, there is a grain of truth. Rural America is a tough place to provide communications services.

But a new survey of 146 members of the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association, 100 percent reported they offer broadband access. In 2000, 58 percent of surveyed members offered broadband service, so there has been substantial progress.

That does not mean every rural cooperative or service provider now offers broadband, or offers access at all the speeds it might desire. It does indicate that rural citizens increasingly are getting broadband and other new services despite the challenges. 

Higher speeds arguably are a good thing, of course, and might benefit from some changes in the way universal service and related mechanisms are structured.  But there is some mix of "demand" and "supply" drivers in rural, as well as urban, markets. 

Also, about 93 percent of survey respondents indicated they face competition in the provision of advanced services from at least one other service provider, up from 87 percent a year ago. That includes providers of satellite TV and broadband access, cable operators, Internet service providers and wireless providers. 

To the extent that most telcos already have broadband access competitors in their markets, adoption 

Some 99 percent use digital subscriber line, but 44 percent also say they use fiber to the home or fiber to the curb, up from 32 percent last year. About 17 percent use unlicensed wireless, 16 percent use licensed wireless, 14 percent use satellite access and 10 percent offer cable modem service. 

Some 91 percent of customers can receive service at 200 kbps to 768 kbps service. About 83 percent of cusotmers can get speeds of  768 kbps to 1.5 Mbps.

About 58 percent have access to speeds ranging from 1.5 Mbps to 3 Mbps. Some 46 percent of customers can buy service at speeds between  3 Mbps and 6 Mbps, while 25 percent can buy service at speeds greater than 6 Mbps. 

On average, 11 percent of customers buy 56 kbps service. About 19 percent subscribe to service at 200 kbps to 768 kbps.

Roughly 36 percent buy service in the 768 kbps to 1.5 Mbps band. Another 10 percent buy service in the 1.5 Mbps to 3 Mbps range.

Some 11 percent buy service at 3 Mpbs to 6 Mbps. Just five percent buy service at speeds greater than 6 Mbps. Overall, dial-up take rates declined and broadband take rates rose significantly in the past year, NTCA says. 

Of those respondents with a fiber deployment strategy plan, 71 percent plan to offer fiber to the node to more than 75 percent of their customers by year-end 2009, while 74 percent plan to offer fiber to the home to at least 25 percent of their customers over the same time frame.

Some six percent of respondents currently offer VoIP, but 46 percent have plans to offer VoIP in the foreseeable future. About 68 percent of respondents offer video service to their customers.