Geography Hinders Rural Broadband Deployment

Communications Today, Oct 31, 2001

Small markets and huge distances add up to a poor prognosis for ubiquitous broadband availability any time soon in rural America, according to new study conducted by the National Exchange Carrier Association. NECA was formed in 1983 by the Federal Communications Commission as a not-for-profit membership corporation of incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) to administer the FCC's access charge plan

NECA's "Middle Mile Study" focuses on the costs of transporting Internet traffic between a rural Internet service provider and one of the 34 national Internet backbone providers - the so-called "middle mile." The study concludes that high-speed Internet service is currently "uneconomic" in many rural telephone company territories.

Despite its not being profitable, some rural incumbent carriers offer digital subscriber line (DSL) to their customers because it is the only game in town for many farmers and ranchers in remote areas that are not served by cables companies.

"It's not going to be a money maker, but there will be some [rural ILECs] that will choose to deploy

[DSL], even recognizing that," Earl Owens, who is chief executive officer of Blackfoot Telephone in Missoula, Mont., and also president of the National Telephone Cooperative Association, told Communications Today.

--Bruce Sullivan, bsullivan@pbimedia.com

For more on rural broadband issues and the NECA middle mile study see the Nov. 6 issue of Communications Today's sister publication Broadband Networking News. >TK Qualcomm [QCOM]: