Internet access
Too many rural areas have limited or no service
Imagine living in a rural county in Pennsylvania and having no, or very limited, internet access. That doesn’t just mean limited entertainment options through streaming services. It also affects education, health care, banking, commerce and a host of other services.
That’s why eight counties in southwest and Central Pennsylvania are working together to find ways to bring internet access — through wireless services or fiber-optic cable — to more homes and businesses in rural areas. It’s an effort that deserves support and funding from the state Legislature to level the playing field when it comes to internet access.
The Southern Alleghenies Planning and Development Commission is doing an internet-needs survey in the eight counties — Bedford, Blair, Cambria, Fayette, Fulton, Huntingdon, Somerset and Westmoreland. The commission hopes to create a nonprofit agency that would bring better internet service to residents in the eight affected counties.
The commission estimates that 10% of the population in those areas — more than 100,000 people — have either slow or no internet access.
It’s a common problem throughout the state. An 11-month study by Penn State researchers in 2018 found that more than half of the state’s residents do not have access to the minimum broadband connection. The Federal Communications Commission sets its benchmark for “high speed” access at 25 megabits per second. Rural counties in the state have connection speeds that could be as low as 0-3 mps.
Although there have been state efforts to entice internet providers to expand service to underserved areas, the problem is one of economics — too few people to make expanded service profitable in many rural areas.
That’s why nonprofit agencies, such as that being considered by the Southern Alleghenies Commission, may be the best hope for improving connectivity statewide. An all-volunteer nonprofit in Huntingdon County, the Rural Broadband Cooperative, has already brought service to 20 homes and business by using a communication tower to transmit internet access signals. It hopes to bring another 200 customers online this summer when a second tower is added.
Internet access is no longer a luxury item but an important way of life and needs to be viewed as part of the infrastructure, just as the electrical grid is viewed. The state should offer whatever assistance it can to projects that bring connectivity to rural areas.