Rural connections
Everywhere the Web seems important.
But at what cost?
It's not as simple as
stringing lines across the country
by Bill Knight
Illustration by Mike Cramer
Rural residents have always struggled for access. In past decades, they fought for roads, for electricity, even mail delivery. Now some feel as though they're at the dead end of the Information Superhighway.
They may have reason to worry.
"I read somewhere that in the 18th century, seaports made the difference in areas' economies and lives. In the 19th, it was railroads. In the 20th, it was airports. And in the 21st century, it is bandwidth," says Julie Fesenmaier, a researcher at the Laboratory for Community and Economic Development at the University of Illinois' College of Agriculture, referring to the capacity of electronic transmission lines. Broadband lines are those capable of sending more and faster information, and proponents argue they're necessary for access to the full range of technological advances.
"The global economy is divided between the slow world and the fast world as far as economic practices and competitive advantages, and many people want to make sure part of rural Illinois' infrastructure is Web access," she says. "It's not just e-commerce, but business-to-business transactions that can provide a product or service almost anywhere. Rural areas can't be left behind to be some place like Bhutan."
Still, others note that rural Web access isn't as simple as Off and On. And some, including Doug Dougherty of the Illinois Telecommunications Association trade group, argue there isn't an obvious need. "There's not much of an outpouring of people who complain, 'Hey, I can't get on the Net,'" Dougherty says. "If we did, maybe the market would fill that niche quicker. Instead, what we have are small towns with access through schools or libraries. So, for the 79-year-old widow who walks to the library or community
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college and uses AOL, she's connected. And, face it, if you have a phone, you have access. You may choose not to use it, but you have it." Even if policy-makers were to agree there is a so-called "digital divide" separating rural and urban Illinois, it would be difficult to define what the Internet needs of rural residents would be, what might be affordable to them and what technology is practical. After all, many small towns already have an Internet access provider. There are more than 160 of them in the four telephone area codes that serve rural Illinois: 815, 309, 217 and 618.
"Maybe it's a chicken-or-egg question," Dougherty says. "Maybe there's a need to create demand in rural areas because 'If they build it, will they come?' I don't know."
What is known is the number of people who could be affected by the debate. According to the U.S. Census, more than 15 percent of the state's 11.4 million citizens are rural residents, those who live in areas with populations of less than 2,500. That's about 1.8 million Illinoisans.
And rural residents are far behind the norm in computer and Internet access, according to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, a division of the U.S. Department of Commerce. "At some income levels," according to a report issued by the agency last summer, "those in urban areas are 50 percent more likely to have Internet access than those earning the same income in rural areas."
The report also notes that rural residency increases the technological gap between whites and minorities. "Black households in rural areas," the report argues, "are one-third less likely to own a computer than the average U.S. black household, and are two-fifths less likely to have access to the Internet than the average U.S. black household."
Commerce Secretary William M. Daley took note. "The greatest change in business has been the explosion in information technologies [and] the gap between technological haves and have-nots - what we call the digital divide - is a divide we must close, and fast." State Rep. Constance Howard, the Chicago Democrat who chairs the House Computer Technology Committee, says she's been inspired by Daley and by President Bill Clinton. Last month, Clinton requested $2 billion in tax incentives over the next decade and $380 million for federal grants to encourage the private sector to donate computers and train employees. He also wants to establish 1,000 Community Technology Centers in low-income urban and rural neighborhoods.
"It's a lofty goal," says Howard, "but I want all of the state to be computer literate and have actual access in some way, whether [it's] something like WebTV or a PC."
In fact, Republican Gov. George Ryan addressed the issue last month, too, in his combined budget and State of the State address. He called for $1.9 billion over five years to help improve Illinois' technology-related infrastructure. The proposal also calls for $800 million in venture capital investments through a new Illinois VentureTech, an idea put together with advice from technology experts and entrepreneurs.
"We have the fourth largest technology economy in the nation here in Illinois," Ryan said in his address. "If we are to keep pace, we must make this technology investment now." The spending plan for the fiscal year that begins in July is now in the hands of lawmakers.
But the impulse to connect rural residents runs across the political spectrum. Conservative U.S. Rep. Tom Bliley, the Virginia Republican who chairs the U.S. House Committee on Commerce, says he plans to hold hearings on the technology gap. And a coalition of progressive groups, including the League of United Latin American Citizens, the National Rainbow/PUSH Coalition and People for the American Way, recently issued a joint comment to the Federal Communication Commission urging support for rural, isolated and high-cost areas.
"Citizens without access are citizens without voices and ears," the statement argued. "They are unable to engage in these fundamental new forms of speech and new means to participate in society."
The FCC didn't need much convincing. "For rural communities, e-commerce and broadband capability can provide an unprecedented opportunity to overcome traditional geographic disadvantages," Commissioner Gloria Tristani said last fall.
"Small businesses in rural areas can use e-commerce to market and sell their products around the globe, while rural residents can shop the global marketplace from their own homes. Rural communities can compete with larger cities for information technology businesses. Distance learning allows students in smaller communities access to teachers and a wealth of information that otherwise would not be available. And telemedicine offers rural citizens the chance to obtain remote diagnosis and even remote surgery that require high resolution, real-time video and data services without having to travel thousands of miles. Broadband technology - through telco, cable, wireless or satellite services - makes all of this possible."
It's also possible to fine-tune agriculture, says Fesenmaier of the U of I. "Farmers who aren't online aren't getting all the information they need, whether it's about seeds or planting or weather or markets," she says. "That can make a difference in levels of precision and in profitability."
Everywhere, the Web seems important. But at what cost? "The Internet is becoming more vital, but expense is holding down participation," says Darlene Scheuermann, director of Internet operations for Adams NetWorks Inc., a subsidiary of Adams Telephone Cooperative in Golden. The member-owned operation has been providing phone service since 1952 and Internet access since 1995. It now serves about 7,000 Internet users in six western Illinois counties - 45 percent more people than its phone customers.
"Rural areas are more costly for consumers," she says, "and more expensive to phone companies. It's a distance-sensitive operation involving leasing lines, and rural subscribers
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may not appreciate that."
In some places, even if people pay extra for access, quality can be poor: busy signals, interference or slow downloading.
Brent Crossland, a deputy technology officer for Gov. Ryan's Technology Office, says he sympathizes with rural residents. "It's exciting and frustrating," he says. "When AOL bought Time Warner, I thought it was a great move. There'll be video content piped into the home - but not to me. My provider can't deliver it; I have Plain Old Telephone Service, not broadband. Maybe five years from now.
"High-speed lines to deliver high-volume loads exist, but not throughout Illinois," he says. "It's like how Interstate 55 bisects the state, carrying a lot of traffic. And the farther you are from I-55, you can feel way out on the end of a branch."
Nationally, the FCC and the Clinton Administration are paying attention to these problems, but action seems slow. "Our big goal should be to make connection to the Internet as common as connection to telephones is today," Clinton said. "It would be tragic if this instrument that has done more to break down barriers between people than anything in all human history built a new wall because not everybody had access to it."
The marketplace doesn't offer an automatic solution, though. "Large telephone companies are unlikely in a deregulated environment to provide rural America with the services it needs. They simply do not have the incentives," says Tom Rowley, a staff member of the Tennessee Valley Authority and the University of Kentucky's TVA Rural Studies Program. "Instead, smaller phone companies, electric utilities, cable television companies and municipalities are often in the best position to ensure the communities get what they need." If there's a consensus, it's that a private-public partnership is the most practical approach, perhaps involving Illinois' biggest phone companies: Ameritech, Gallatin River, GTE, Illinois Consolidated/McLeod, and Citizens Utilities, a Connecticut company that recently bought 100,000 access lines from GTE, pending FCC approval.
If there's a reluctance to take that approach, it's that some shy away from a commitment to help when techno-logy seems to change so rapidly. "I strongly suspect that some sort of public-private partnership will be needed to get the Internet out to the country," says Paul Galligos, director of Rural Partners, a nonprofit organization working for rural community development. "I'd like to see the private side shake out first and let the profit motive do its part before government starts regulating wire or cable or fiber optics or satellite. That said, it may take some sort of subsidy, like other rural utilities."
Tristani, the FCC commissioner, adds, "There is no magic bullet to ensure that rural Americans benefit from the wonders of the World Wide Web. Rural communities represent unique local environments that require unique solutions. Our challenge is to develop partnerships among elected officials, regulatory agencies, service providers, investors, manufacturers and, of course, the user community to identify solutions."
Scheuermann of Adams NetWorks, concedes that the financial structure of rural power or phone co-ops is the key to their involvement. "If it weren't for us being a co-op, we couldn't be doing this," she says. "We try to provide what our members need in a cost-efficient way. We're not focused on bottom-line profits."
A lot of movement eventually will result in some action, whether the spark comes from science or finance. "There will be progress," adds Crossland. "The technology seems to happen fast, but it's also incremental, so advances in cities may come at a faster pace than in an area where there are towns every 15 miles.
"And the model that's likely to work is the rural electric co-op or municipality that's helped themselves. A co-op is a good business to be in. It may not pay off in the short term, but sooner or later they should be able to sell access to their members from providers over that single pipeline that they own."
Many questions remain unanswered. Or unasked. Will digital service, through a subscriber line or a satellite or a wireless system, help connect remote individuals or towns? Will sophisticated, high-speed data transfer or full-motion video automatically be part of rural access?
Then there's the question of standards, on making uniform the delivery methods, which right now differ from place to place. One standard is the changing concept of universal service. Traditionally, universal service in telecommunications has meant a series of policies aimed at making basic phone service available to Americans at reasonable rates. The Telecommunications Act of 1996, however, established regulations to expand the definition of universal service to make broadband telecommunications available to schools, libraries and medical centers at affordable rates.
The most familiar manifestation of universal service is a private fund administered by the National Exchange Carrier Association. That pool of funds is a carrier-to-carrier subsidy that lets rural customers pay lower phone rates than would otherwise be required. Other universal service programs help low-income customers. Another, coordinated by the FCC, helps rural libraries and health care facilities, and is funded through the federal tax line item on phone bills.
"If we accept that universal service now extends to the Internet, that's at least the fifth type of universal service," Dougherty says. "No one wants to just throw money out there. But it's not as simple as stringing lines across the country." Nevertheless, the FCC seems to reflect the impatience of the Clinton Administration. "With respect to rural, smaller cities and other hard-to-serve areas," Tristani said, "it may not be happening as quickly or ubiquitously as it should."
Bill Knight, a reporter who covers media for the Times weekly newspaper group in Peoria, teaches journalism at Western Illinois University in Macomb.
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