05/23/2022 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 05/23/2022 07:07
COLUMBUS, Ohio-While most Ohioans have access to broadband internet, nearly 1 million still lack access to the fast, reliable broadband services in their homes, says analysts with the C. William Swank Program in Rural-Urban Policy at The Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES).
"This unserved population largely lives in less populated rural regions of the state where it is prohibitively expensive for internet service providers to extend service," according to Mark Partridge, chair and professor in the CFAES Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics. The Swank program, housed in the department, conducts research, teaching, and outreach within the college.
An April report released by researchers with the Swank program says there is a strong economic benefit for Ohio to invest in expanding and enhancing broadband coverage to unserved areas, as well as making the service more affordable and ensuring that users have access to adequate devices to use the internet for their needs.
Broadband internet services are those that meet the Federal Communications Commission's current minimum speeds of 25 megabits per second for downloading and 3 megabits per second for uploading. But those definitions of "high speed" are woefully out of date and need to be updated by the government, Partridge said.
"When comparing Ohio-in which 12% of the population lacks broadband access-to its neighbors, there are considerable differences," he said. "For example, over 50% of West Virginians lack access to broadband service versus only 6.5% of New Yorkers, though West Virginia is uniformly inhibited by difficult terrain."
Partridge said Ohio's relative performance is middling, with some states achieving higher broadband penetration, such as Illinois with 90.3% and New York at 93.5%, while other states fare considerably worse than Ohio, such as West Virginia at 49.8% and Kentucky at 81.4%.
"The last few years saw rapid transformation of broadband use throughout America with almost every aspect of life now wholly reliant on digital technology," Partridge said. "Streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu have increased their prevalence in our everyday lives, while telehealth and telework options have exploded, with the former now being a viable option for rural communities' void of healthcare providers and the latter permeating almost every industry.
"And the COVID-19 pandemic only exacerbated the issue, as accelerated demands for high-speed internet as lockdowns in the spring of 2020 forced tens of millions of students to learn virtually, and a large fraction of the U.S. labor force to work remotely."
This as the federal government this month announced a major partnership with 20 internet providers to increase their internet speeds or cut the price of their services for income-eligible households nationwide. The move is part of the Federal Communications Commission's Affordable Connectivity Program, finalized in November 2021, which provides a monthly subsidy to cover the cost some consumers pay for internet service.
The Swank report says that further bridging the digital divide and extending and enhancing access to underserved areas of Ohio will likely require:
The 2022 analysis, Finding the Missing Dots: An Update on Ohio Broadband Policy, is 53 pages and is available to download for free at go.osu.edu/missingdots.