OUT OF TOUCH
Indiana County official pleads for help with broadband dead zones
A heavily wooded park was the perfect setting Wednesday for a state Senate committee to hear from folks with problems getting online in the digital age: the 650acre Blue Spruce Park, which has 125,000 visitors annually, is a broadband dead zone, where neither internet nor cellphone connections are possible.
The park is also just 6 miles from the office of Indiana County Commissioner Rodney D. Ruddock in Indiana, a town of 13,149 people that has a thriving university and choice of five internet service providers.
The paradox wasn’t lost on Mr. Ruddock, who pleaded for help from the committee in ending the yawning disparity between Pennsylvania’s digital haves and havenots. He faulted the lack of leadership and funding for ongoing problems in getting rural Pennsylvania connected.
“Five miles from the county seat and we have no signal,” Mr. Ruddock fumed. “How do we call an ambulance? We don’t. People are at risk. When you’re in a public park, you’re at risk. We need an action plan and we need it now. Let’s get it done.”
The hearing was the first of four planned by the Senate Communications & Technology Committee, which is gathering information for legislation to help get rural Pennsylvania online, said committee chair and York County Republican Sen. Kristin Phillips- Hill.
The legislation could be ready in two years.
Connectivity problems of the type Mr. Ruddock described are common in Pennsylvania, where some 800,000 residents can’t get on the internet because the service is not available where they live. And even where it’s offered, the speed that web pages load on the screen can be painfully slow.
The median broadband speed in Indiana County is 4.7 megabits of data downloaded per second — among the slowest speeds in the state and less than one- fifth the Federal Communications Commission’s definition of broadband, according to a new study by the Center for Rural Pennsylvania.
The FCC estimates 95% of Pennsylvanians have access to broadband, but it’s widely acknowledged — even by FCC commissioners — that the estimate is flawed, Pennsylvania Public Utility Commissioner Norman J. Kennard said.
Under the FCC’s system of analysis, if even a single user in a census block has broadband, then the entire block is deemed to have service, with “most objective observers agreeing that the FCC’s broadband maps are distorted and overstate the availability of broadband services,” Mr. Kennard said in written remarks.
Here are some of the takeaways from Wednesday’s hearing: getting speedy internet access to all Pennsylvanians will be pricey, ranging from $ 500 million to tens of billions of dollars; a combination of infrastructure approaches will be needed to fix the problem, from satellite to fiber to cable; and some public money will be needed.
“It’s billions of dollars or tens of billions of dollars, depending on speed,” said Frank P. Buzydlowski, director of state government relations at Verizon. “We really don’t have a number, but it’s billions, an unbelievable amount of money.”
Sheri R. Collins, acting executive director of the Governor’s Office of Broadband Initiatives, was more conservative, saying between $ 500 million and $ 1 billion would be needed to expand broadband’s reach, which is crucial to education, commerce and public safety.
Gov. Tom Wolf’s estimate of getting high speed internet access to every home in Pennsylvania was $ 715 million, which he wants to pay for with a natural gas severance tax. Ms. Collins talked up the proposal at the hearing.
But the General Assembly has rejected Gov. Wolf’s gas tax proposal every year he’s been in office and the Senate committee on Wednesday didn’t offer much hope of a change of heart.
“I’m not sure the third time will be a charm,” Sen. Phillips- Hill said.