Thanks to concerted efforts in recent years to address the challenges of broadband accessibility, more Kentucky communities and households are taking steps to get connected to the information superhighway. At the same time, however, ever-increasing bandwidth requirements for online applications are making it more difficult for many Kentuckians to keep up with the rest of the country.
“It’s frustrating that we keep swimming harder, and it seems like the current just keeps getting stronger in the face of our efforts,” said research associate Michael Childress, author of an issue brief released in September by the University of Kentucky College of Communication and Information and the Center for Business and Economic Research.
According to the brief, titled “The Internet in Kentucky: Life in the Slow Lane,” only 18 counties in Kentucky have download speeds and high-speed Internet utilization rates that are considered “nationally competitive,” meaning at least 80 percent of households can download 25 megabytes of data per second (mbps) and at least 70 percent have high-speed Internet access in their homes. Most of those counties are located in the so-called Golden Triangle of the state, connecting Lexington, Louisville and Cincinnati, Ohio. The brief identified 45 Kentucky counties that are currently relegated to the “information highway slow lane,” without download capabilities of at least 25 mbps. In addition, more than 85 percent of the 102 counties that are not “nationally competitive” have household broadband rates below 70 percent.
Efforts to expand broadband access, adoption and use across the state and the country have been successful, Childress said. But at the same time, the bar has been raised significantly in recent years in terms of the download rates required for today’s user.
“You’ve got the broadband infrastructure that is expanding and becoming available to more and more people, and more and more people have the skills to use these technologies,” Childress said. “But simultaneously, the application developers and the software engineers are coming up with even more data-hungry applications that, for a lot of people, are just out of the reach of their capabilities.”
Lacking bandwidth of 25 mbps doesn’t close communities out completely from the benefits of being online. Applications such as videoconferencing, for instance, can be achieved at 13.4 mbps, and web browsing requires only 4 mbps, according to statistics published in a recent report from the Brookings Institution. But the minimum threshold for adequate download speed has increased more than threefold in the roughly two years since the state’s Office of Broadband Outreach and Development was created, said Steve Rucker, deputy secretary of Kentucky's Finance and Administration Cabinet. With more than $5.3 million in federal grants from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for broadband mapping and outreach, the state has been working to ensure broadband services are available to all Kentucky citizens and businesses.
According to Rucker, the push to transfer more data at faster speeds isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
“Businesses and individuals are now seeing the Internet as our new infrastructure,” Rucker said. “[Some of] the applications that are being written, they require individuals to have faster speed, and therefore the demand is there for companies to go and make the investment needed to have those speeds available.”
One thing that hasn’t changed, however, is the wide disparity in broadband adoption rates across income and education levels. According to the brief, roughly half of Kentucky households earning less than $25,000 in annual income had broadband, as compared to 67 percent of households earning between $25,000 and $50,000 annually. In addition, while 79 percent of Kentuckians with at least a bachelor’s degree had broadband, that percentage dropped to 60 percent for those with a high school diploma and 49 percent for those with less education than that.
“A lot of times it comes down to education levels and income levels,” said Brian Kiser, executive director of the Commonwealth Office of Broadband Outreach and Development. “Kentucky has a high instance of poverty and extreme poverty. These are people who are living on less than $10,000 per year. They are more worried about keeping their heat on and their electric on during the winter months than worrying about broadband access.”
From using e-health technology for a long-distance check-up to learning how to search for a job in the digital age, low-income citizens have a lot to gain from broadband accessibility, said Jessica Ditto of Connected Nation. Headquartered in Bowling Green, Ky., Connected Nation’s mission is to expand broadband access, adoption and use in communities across the country.
“We know that broadband is the great equalizer between the haves and have-nots,” Ditto said. “There is dramatic cost savings for a community and for a state when technology is ubiquitous and is being leveraged in the hospitals and schools and businesses.”
Broadband availability can improve the quality of life for citizens at all income levels, to the benefit of the entire state. Kiser said the key is placing it within reach and building awareness of the benefits that Internet access can provide.
After mapping the state’s broadband usage and capabilities and working with area development districts and local stakeholders to develop regional strategies for improvement, Kiser’s office is now looking to put those ideas into action. Tactical plans are expected to launch within each of five designated regions across the state in late October.
As Kentucky’s broadband efforts transition from mapping and strategic planning to implementation, Rucker said the strong emphasis on expanding access and adoption across the state will continue. Initiatives such as the state’s health information exchange require high-speed capabilities among its users for it to be fully functional, Rucker added. Broadband availability has also become an economic imperative for attracting and retaining businesses in the state.
“We’ve got companies that now, when they look to relocate, they look to see what kind of broadband capabilities that state has,” Rucker said. “It has moved way up on the list of requirements before they relocate.”
Kiser added that the ability of high-speed access to improve the everyday lives of Kentuckians should not be discounted either.
“A lot of times, people think that meaningful use needs to be education or e-health only,” Kiser said. “I think we are finding how broadband is there for our day-to-day life as well. It’s a quality of life issue for our citizens.”