State office taking comments on rural broadband

BY CHUCK VANDENBERG
PCC EDITOR

LEE COUNTY - Expanding high speed broadband access to the more rural locations in Lee County may be an issue of investment, technology and even just Father Time.

But as with any utility's in the United States, getting investments to extend services to the most rural areas takes those resources, but the initial work is increasing the discussion.

Several weeks ago Iowa's U.S. Senators Charles Grassley and Joni Ernst sent letters to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, that census block mapping being currently used inaccurately reflects the availability of high speed Internet access in rural Iowa.

The maps being used were from data cultivated in 2016, but a new map distributed by the Iowa Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) this week is using data from 2017 and shows a slightly different picture.

Federal and state grants are available to help bridge the high speed broadband across rural America in the "Targeted Service Areas", but local official say it isn't just about applying and receiving.

A local tri-state advocacy group called Tri States Summit, originally formed about 20 years ago to look at regular infrastructure in northeast Missouri, western Illinois and southeast Iowa, is now taking up the rural broadband issue.

Data cultivated through census blocks by the FCC sets a standard broadband speed at 25 megabits/second download and 3 megabits/second upload. The TSAs are designated by those that do not have that 25/3 service speed.

Tim Fencl is the general manager and CEO of Danville Mutual Telephone Company. Danville Teleco offers broadband services in Lee County. Fencl, and Mt. Pleasant Chamber Alliance Director Kristi Ray are working with the Summitt group to help bring about conversations regarding the poor service in the area.

"When the government started talking about electrical, water, and now the Internet - the more they talk about it the more gets done. My personal take is seems to take 5 to 15 years for us to make real solid headway," Fencl said.

Fencl said the real obstacle to bring reliable high-speed Internet to rural counties in Iowa and across America with current technology is the return on investment of fiber optics. He said right now it costs anywhere from $7 to $15 or $35,000 a mile to run fiber optic cable and in some cases that's to one home a mile away from another.

"Anytime your rolling out new technology its expensive when it first comes out. There aren't as many contractors and we're limited to where we can put fiber optics," he said.

A federal Universal Telephone Fund was set up decades ago to make sure there was telephone service to every home in America and the government got behind that fund. Fencl said utilities are getting away from that slowly but he sees it converting to a digital service fund, which would in essence make the Internet a utility.

But he said rural America is not happy with the speed of the progress.

Whenever it's starts to trigger no one gets it done fast enough. Price point is still high, but every year the technology is getting cheaper and cheaper," Fencl said.

"We're not going it fast enough for everyone's liking - certainly not mine. We're leaving rural behind until we can get it there."

The main providers in Lee County's rural areas are national providers Century Link and Dishnet, but other providers like Windstream, VSAT systems and Danville Telecom.

Ray said she's been working with the Summit for the past year or so and has been involved in helping collect more accurate data on services and providers in the tri-state area.

"We met with a number of providers and met with economic development groups and the economic development people are hearing we don't have good broadband," Ray said.

"It's not fast enough and we have areas unserved and underserved. But the providers are telling us, totally understandably, they can't offer fiber and broadband services when you have one home within miles of each other. They can't find a way to make any money at it."

Ray said the fortunate thing about Lee County is that providers, like Fencl's company are very active at the state and federal levels in trying to open doors to help bring about a swifter solution. But she agreed with Fencl that providers are not going to provide fiber optic services to rural America until they can see a better return on investment.

In addition to the cost factor, she said the group started looking at the maps and saw they were very outdated so they questioned the maps and then the grants that were being awarded based on the maps.

"I will tell you when we started this a year and half ago the maps were from 2014, and they say they've updated mapping to 2016, and we're still not convinced its accurate. Sens. Ernst and Grassley were hearing from constituents that they can't get it, yet these maps show they can," Ray said.

"We agree that the mapping is still not accurate."

But she said the good thing is that it's back on the radar. Ray said the government needs to work out the mapping issues for a more accurate depiction of coverage

"I feel it's getting a ton of conversation right now, but don't know if we're getting anything done. Our local providers are not the problem - but how do they make it feasible," Ray said. "The chance of getting fiber to (rural) homes is slim to none, but can't they find a way to a wireless market."

Outside of the fiber optics Fencl said people are currently using satellite Internet services, which he said have a lower latency or data transmission speed. Some of the satellites use high orbital paths and some use lower orbital path.

"The number of satellites you would need to provide feasible service is astronomical. What do you do with them when they break. We're talking about 1000s of satellites going across the sky."

Fencl said he doesn't think satellite technology is advanced far enough yet to make it a viable option and that research hasn't determined just how much data can be sent across fiber optic cable, but right now data can move at close to 125,000 miles per second.

"That's phenomenal speed and we haven't even tapped into how much data we can send across fiber yet. I don't see anything in the next 5 to 15 years on the horizon that can do what fiber optics does."

However, he said there could be a balance struck between fiber and wireless connections.

"That tech is being looked at by people smarter than me and is a mix of some type of connected and wireless network. But again, how do you work that in a rural area where line of sight is so important," he said.

The OCIO is currently in a public comment window on mapping and anyone interested in commenting on the situation may do so at ociogrants@iowa.gov.

Officials ask that you include any evidence that supports your claims regarding the current mapping. Additional information on the FCC mapping and the OCIO's involvement can be found at https://ocio.iowa.gov/broadband-availability-map-version-2

"It goes much deeper than what we realized," Ray said. "We cannot solve the broadband issue here, because it's a national problem that runs very deep. It's very challenging for us."