Broadband in Your Home - Your Digital Highway

First posted on 10-26-2007

“Broadband is today what the highways were years and years ago. You had to have highways to get anywhere. Broadband are digital highways, and they are absolutely necessary for us to participate in the global economy.”

James Winningham, Chairman
Arkansas Broadband Initiative

James Winningham, deputy commissioner - Information Services with the Arkansas Department of Insurance, made those remarks in a speech to the Hope-Hempstead County Connected Communities Group in Hope lastJanuary.

He also nailed one of the most important keys to success in this new digital era: “It is not so much about infrastructure. We could take broadband to every home and every business in Arkansas, and we would not achieve our goals. It’s a question of empowering Arkansas to take advantage of the benefits and opportunities that broadband offers.”

Connected communities are communities, counties or regions that garner their human, technological and financial resources to take full advantage of information technology, the Internet and broadband connectivity to accomplish their goals. (Broadband includes DSL, cable modems, fiber optics, satellite, broadband over power lines and fixed wireless systems.)

The University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service received a grant from the Arkansas Community Foundation to develop a Connected Communities Program and test it in a pilot community. Hope (Hempstead County) was chosen, with leadership from Dave Phillips and Wesley Woodard.

It has been a wonderful partnership as we seek to harness the power of broadband. Connected Communities builds on the excellent work done in several other states and our Breakthrough Solutions Program.

Why Broadband is a Big Deal - Eight Key Points

You may live in a community with cable broadband or DSL. If you already have broadband, why is it such a big deal?

1) The lack of affordable broadband defines and shapes the limits of growth in a community, county, or region. Many people in rural areas and communities still do not have access to affordable broadband. Satellite broadband, while universally available in Arkansas, has lower speed, higher cost and other issues.

2) The new digital divide is between those who have access to affordable broadband and know how to use it effectively and those who don’t. As affordable broadband becomes the norm that is expected, those areas without it will be at a distinct disadvantage in the marketplace for goods, services, workers, ideas and capital.

3) Access to the Internet is being redefined as access to affordable broadband, with a computer in every home, or at least every home with kids in school. How can your kids compete in school if they cannot access broadband at night from their home? In ConnectKentucky’s “No Child Left Offline” program, refurbished computers are provided to families who need computers for their school work.

4) A brand new digital divide is emerging - those with very high speed broadband (20 MBPS or greater) and those without it. Those without it cannot use certain applications such as high definition TV, gaming, transmitting some health care images or full-motion videoconferencing. If you only plan to meet today’s needs, by the time you get your infrastructure in place, it will be out of date.

5) Areas without affordable broadband cannot compete as effectively in business, education, tourism, manufacturing, health care, workforce education, agriculture, and other fields. They are left further and further behind.

6) Residential neighborhoods may be the industrial park of the 21st century. As nearly half of all new businesses are now operated from the home, providing broadband to residential areas is as important as providing it to the industrial park on the edge of town.

7) Our competition is global, and we are behind the curve.

a. South Korea is the world champion, with affordable broadband available to over 90 percent of their households, 60 percent of which are connected.

b. Many South Koreans can get 20 megabits per second (MBPS) or higher broadband speed, while Americans are lucky to get as high as 5 MBPS.

c. More than 95 percent of South Koreans between 6 and 29 years of age periodically go online. Does our emerging workforce have such skills?

8) Finally, if you question the value of broadband, ask your teenagers (digital natives) if they are willing to move to a community without broadband when they finish their education. Then imagine a community in which no one comes back to live.

For more information about community development, contact your county extension agent or visit http://www.vworks.org/. The Cooperative Extension Service is part of the U of A Division of Agriculture.