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Lack Of Broadband Internet Hurts Higher Education In Rural Areas
August 18, 2017
The lack of high-speed internet services in many rural areas like North Escambia is one of the challenges hindering Florida’s efforts to increase college degrees and spur economic development, a new report shows.
Some 680,000 Floridians do not have access to a broadband internet service that would allow information to be downloaded at minimum speed of 25 megabits per second, according to the report presented to the state Higher Education Coordinating Council.
Ed Moore, president of the Independent Colleges and Universities of Florida who compiled the report, said the data should prompt a “hard look at what access there is to digital learning and digital infrastructure across our state.”
“You cannot get ahead if you cannot get online,” Moore said.
Expanding broadband access and online education opportunities could help the state meet the Higher Education Coordinating Council’s goal of having 55 percent of Florida’s working-age population obtain either a college degree or professional certificate by 2025. Less than 47 percent have reached that level.
Moore said the 30 private colleges and universities in his organization now offer 592 degrees and certificates through online courses.
“That’s a whole new world of higher education and creating access,” Moore said. “If you can’t get it in your house, if you can’t get it in your local school, your library or some other facility, it doesn’t mean anything to you.”
Moore’s report, based on Federal Communications Commission data, showed high-speed broadband service was consistently available in Florida’s urban counties, which also correlated with higher income levels, more college degrees and more job growth among the residents.
But his report also identified 13 small, rural counties that were “trailing” in broadband access, ranging from Madison County, with 41 percent of its residents not having access, to Dixie County, with 99 percent without access.
Among those counties, residents with college degrees or certificates ranged from 27 percent in Jefferson County to 12 percent in DeSoto County.
Another 16 counties were designated as “underserved,” ranging from Marion County, with 11 percent without broadband access, to Taylor County, with 37 percent without access.
In addition to providing more educational opportunities, Mark Wilson, president of the Florida Chamber of Commerce, said expanding high-speed internet access would help economic development in rural communities.
An analysis from the chamber has shown that while 31 Florida counties have gained jobs since the Great Recession, 36 largely rural counties have lagged behind.
“It happens to overlay that map you talked about almost exactly,” Wilson told Moore.
Wilson said it could result in a “home run” if the education advocates and the rural economic development advocates united behind the effort to improve broadband services.
“This creates an equal opportunity for success for everybody,” he said.
Marshall Criser, chancellor of the state university system, said education leaders should work “collaboratively” with the business community in developing policy recommendations on expanding broadband services.
Criser, a former president of AT&T in Florida, said the state has made efforts to expand internet access and that there were sound reasons for broadband development to follow population densities.
“It’s kind of the chicken or the egg, because there were a lot of people there it made sense to make those investments historically,” Criser said.
And while noting he likes to work almost exclusively on his smart phone, Criser said the development of any recommendations on expanding broadband should take into account “some of the new technology,” which could include wireless and satellite services in addition to broadband delivered over phone lines or fiber optic cable.
He noted the state just enacted a new law that is expected to expand faster wireless services by allowing telecommunications companies to install “small cell” devices on public rights-of-way.
Moore said advancements in technology will be considered as the higher-education council develops its recommendations.
Alan Levine, chairman of the higher-education council, said the council may invite the companies that provide broadband access and infrastructure to talk about the issue.
by Lloyd Dunkelburger, The News Service of Florida
Comments
21 Responses to “Lack Of Broadband Internet Hurts Higher Education In Rural Areas”
WELL ALL I CAN SAY IS TO GET INTERNET OVER SATELLITE FROM EREC.. I HAVE IT AND LIKE ALOT. LET ME SAY THIS I DON’T WORK FOR EREC, BUT I GET MY POWER, AND INTERNET SATELLITE FROM THEM! TRY IT YOU MAY LIKE IT………
AT&T years ago was for a long time charging customers for Caller ID and Call Waiting yet AT&T did not offer or provide that service in the areas.
Kinda seems Criminal to charge for services that a business is unable to provide.
Don’t get me started on AT&T ! I had a boost phone that worked in Century, Jay and Chumuckla. Then, AT&T purchased Boost. The first thing they did was take the tower down in Chumuckla. So I got a track phone-used all the towers-At&t got Track Phone. Now its worthless. Now they purchased Dish Network. First thing that happened- rates went up. They promised us in the 60’s video telephone. Never delivered anything. If I had some at&t stock I would sell it. If we had high speed internet- I could get rid of AT&T for good.
I have dealt with Frontier for years, bitter sweet relationship we have. Until 2005 I was still on dial up and until 4ish years ago on their DSL getting 900kbps down and 187kbps up. Now I have their fastest speed without going to bonded service which would make my bill $100 a month for 24mbps down and 1.5mbps up. My friends in 3rd world countries have better speeds and cheaper!!! It is sad when 4g is faster than a hard line connection. I want to teach through world Bible school and can’t because my upload stream quality is garbage, I need at least 4-6mbps up for 720p 60 frames per second which is streaming standards. I have a feeling I will NEVER see those speeds and Brighthouse will not run 6mi up the road to connect a large rural community. Hughes net is no good either… We have to suffer because we have no options and Frontier for the most part has no competition so we must pay outrageous prices for service.
AT&T’s $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner is in the advanced stages of approval, Which many critics are right in saying will further hurt competition in this country. Something ole Donny said he would stop but backed tracked anyways, such is corruption.
FWIW, if you have broadband,cell phone,landline,DSL…..you have been paying a “Fee” each month you pay your bill, just for this..Rural access. It goes to the Fed already. A special FCC program set up called , Connect America (Version 1 and 2) were/are Federal subsidies to the Communication providers, ATT,Verizon,Frontier and Brighthouse,etc.ect These were giveaways to these companies to invest in infrastructure providing access to rural areas already. Been going on for years folks. Funny how it operates though. Let’s take frontier and bright house, competing broadband companies in the same area, or zone. Let’s say Brighthouse recieves money from the Connect America fund to enhance access to that Zone. Frontier does not. Now all Brighthouse has to do is claim one household in the zone (Footprint) to to qualify for the fund. After that one houshold though, Brighthouse has fulfilled their obligation to the FCC. So, now the only provider is Frontier. Very expensive, very slow service. 40 dollars a month for what Frontier says is up to 6mb. In reality, 1.5 to 2 mb is all you get. Well that and the excuses about being too far away to get any better speed (Fiber access is about 300 ft away, but to expensive to connect to, so they say) In essence its a monopoly with both companies making money, spending not too much on infrastructure in the rural area because it isn’t cost effective to their bottom line. Satellite internet isn’t much better, with caps on data usage, extremely expensive and weather intermittent service (Thunderstorms).
https://www.fcc.gov/connect-america-fund-phase-ii-auction
There are map overlays that allow you to see where the “Fund” goes.
OMG!!!!!!!I cant tell you how many times that I complained to Frontier about this when one of my sons was schooling online classes from UWF.. I live in Davisville and we dont have the luxury of so called high speed internet. They say it is but our ping is always below 1 gig and thats on a good day. We dont have fiber optic down ere in te woods, we have been stuck in the dinasour age for over ten years now. We hear all the time that they are going to upgrade our system, but still havent seen it. Forget about holding your breath over that one cause you will die first waiting..LOL….Oh the struggles my son had trying to do testing from UWF online especially wen its either timed or we lost internet which is quite often.
Good! I being a student, and dealing with terrible 6mbps Internet could say the whole county needs better internet! I have a hard time with my internet all the time so when it comes to multiple things or video research… It’s a pain… @Frontier is one main reason, in this day in age there is FIber Optics… Here certain parts of Florida are struggling with DSL at least bump the speeds…
This is a flimsy excuse to spend taxpayer dollars so that someone gets something without charge. It’s more government. We need less of that, not more.
When I was a kid, we tied to cups together with a string and talked to each other. Later, the 300 baud modem came along. Now, you have DSL and HughesNet satellite internet service if you’re outside the cable internet service area.
Here in the Enon area, our internet is so slow. It affects my children in there highschool and middle School classes, now that they have Chromebooks issued by the schools, they can’t use them at home. Not to mention I would love to do some online college classes,but with the quality of our frontier DSL there is no way that could happen.
North Escambia should be included…….especially rural areas in Davisville. We have Frontier. We pay for “high speed” internet, but we have a slow internet. Frontier tells us we should have high speed…..But everytime a technician comes to the house to check things, we are told that because we live at the end of a service line,with a booster in it…..this is the best we can get. My problem with this is we Pay for “high speed” internet, but are not being provided the service we are paying for. Anyone have any suggestions for us?
Come on! Big Brother wants into every home and every mind. You either want to learn or you don’t. If you do, you find a way. If you don’t, you can be online playing games as long as you live. Social skills are dying because of the internet. The only upside is kids can now read at 1 year old, lol! I can see many things falling by the wayside because of computers, so very sad.
was told by some at&t folks the infrastructure is in all their offices to provide advanced fiber optic service. they won’t spend the money to place fiber in rural areas for monetary reasons. the fiber is going to all the offices, just not out to the houses. it’s more profitable in cities with lots of customers. so we wait.
But Obama spent Billions of dollars to fix this……
Frontier speed test this morning 1.14 mbs Download; 0.16 upload. Serviceinteruption at 6:36 am.
Everyone, including the North End of the County, should have the most advanced technology available to them. Our children deserve the tools to succeed. Escambia County’s 180 day moratorium against the placing of “small cell” devices on public rights-of-way is only impeding progress.
https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/understanding-your-telephone-bill
Check it out, your paying for it, but do you really get the service?
to stick my two cents in ,,If they want broadband let THEIR parents pay extra not me ,,I had no kids tired of all these give me give me stories, and my tax dollars being waste on kids that do not care about anything but being online 24/7,,
Here’s looking at you Frontier, Cereal Daniels, 1.5mb down and .5mb up. Connect America Fund run out? Suppose to get at least 6mb. Definitely challenging with 2 children in school to keep up.
Guess they want this taxpayer funded.