Tennessee looked at what\u2019s worked in other states.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
One component of the assessment researched what other states had done to increase broadband access. \u201cIt turns out, Tennessee\u2019s not the only state that has this issue,\u201d Boyd said. \u201cEvery state has this issue.\u201d According to the assessment, best practices in other states include:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Strong public leadership that champions broadband projects;<\/li>\n
- State broadband office or similar entity;<\/li>\n
- Effective partnerships;<\/li>\n
- Public seed funding and grant programs to encourage investment and build out;<\/li>\n
- Transparency;<\/li>\n
- Proper planning and due diligence.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The study carries heavy legislative implications, and the governor is taking the lead.<\/b><\/p>\n
In the ECD press release, Governor Bill Haslam announced he was putting together a working group to come up with policy suggestions for the legislature.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe information in this report is a starting point to advance the conversation about broadband access in our state,\u201d Haslam said. \u201cAn internal working group will review the report and have discussions with stakeholders to develop potential solutions to close the gap on broadband access in Tennessee.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boyd sees the formation of this group as a \u201chuge sign of something significant and positive to come in the future.\u201d Boyd says he sees \u201ca broad menu of options\u201d going forward, and he\u2019s looking for a win-win-win. He expects some \u201cnew solutions being proposed when the legislature comes back in\u201d and expects electric providers will have \u201ca huge role to play.\u201d He said the legislature will decide the role of municipal providers in the future, and his office is only providing information.<\/p>\n
Rural areas lag behind in access, and that\u2019s bad news for rural economies.<\/b><\/p>\n
As a whole, 13 percent of Tennesseeans, representing 834,000 individuals, do not have access to broadband under the 25\/3 Mbps definition. But drilling deeper, only 2 percent of city dwellers are lacking connections while 34 percent of rural residents do not have access. \u201cThere\u2019s a dramatic digital divide between the cities and the rural parts of our state,\u201d Boyd said.<\/p>\n
The urban\/rural split, which Boyd described as \u201cincredibly significant\u201d and having \u201ctremendous disparities,\u201d has worrisome implications from education to entrepreneurship. While statewide unemployment, household income and GDP numbers are at all-time highs, according to Boyd, 21 of the state\u2019s 95 counties are in the bottom 10 percent in the United States in poverty and income. \u201cWe\u2019re leaving a lot of our neighbors behind, and one of the things that we wanted to focus on was to \u2026 find a way so everybody gets to participate in that success,” he said. \u201cMany things depend on broadband access. I get the question from time to time, \u2018Broadband? That\u2019s got nothing to do with economic development,\u2019 and I think it\u2019s got everything to do with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Connecting all of Tennessee will be expensive.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
The assessment also sought to determine to cost of connecting every Tennesseean. The study acknowledges that fiber-to-the-home is the best option, but the costs are significant. To deliver 25\/3 Mbps service across the state over fiber would cost $1.1 billion to $1.7 billion. \u201cIt\u2019s never implied that the state of Tennessee or any one particular person would have to pay this,\u201d Boyd explained. \u201cIt will probably be a combination. Somehow, somebody is going to have to make that sort of investment.\u201d<\/p>\n
The cost for fixed wireless to provide the same speeds came in lower at $500 million to $1.3 billion. \u201cI imagine that when we finally come up with a solution across the state, it will be some blend of those different solutions,\u201d Boyd said.<\/p>\n
Municipal electric providers and fixed wireless are probably part of the answer.<\/b><\/p>\n
Some of the best practices from other states suggest getting electric providers involved. Boyd said municipal providers were \u201cdefinitely one of the stronger options on the list,\u201d and many people involved believe electric cooperatives have a \u201cbig role to play\u201d if it\u2019s done in a \u201cnot anticompetitive manner\u201d that \u201cseems fair.\u201d He\u2019s hopeful that TTA members will be \u201ckey players in providing the solution in the long term.\u201d<\/p>\n
The assessment also looks at competition among internet service providers, suggesting that areas with more service providers have higher speeds for both businesses and residents. The average download speed for businesses with access to only one provider was 22.5<\/p>\n
Mbps while businesses with access to more than three providers averaged download speeds of<\/p>\n
43.8 Mbps, the report states.<\/p>\n
People care about their broadband and want faster speeds.<\/b><\/p>\n
Boyd said he thought the consultants\u2019 goal of 4,000 responses was too high, given that the survey took about 20 minutes to complete. He was shocked to see 23,000 responses, including 18,000 homeowners and 5,000 business owners.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was incredible,\u201d Boyd says, \u201cwhich I think tells us 1) that people feel like this is important and 2) that they care about it enough to take the time and fill out the survey.\u201d<\/p>\n
The assessment shares some enlightening numbers about residents\u2019 need for speed:<\/p>\n
![\"Chart1\"](\"https:\/\/www.tennesseebroadband.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Chart1.png\")
<\/a>![\"HouseholdSatisfaction\"](\"https:\/\/www.tennesseebroadband.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/HouseholdSatisfaction-1024x526.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nAlmost everyone thinks they need internet service.<\/b><\/p>\n
Only about 5 percent of assessment respondents (821 individuals) reported no internet at their home. Over half of those cited a lack of availability as the cause, with affordability as the second most frequent barrier. Only 2 percent said they did not need internet service. Interestingly, the study showed no clear correlation between not having an internet connection and<\/p>\n
income, education, age or employment status.<\/p>\n
Broadband is good for business.<\/b><\/p>\n
Participating businesses reported that broadband enabled 43 percent of all net new jobs and 66 percent of revenues. Additionally, 34 percent of businesses indicated broadband was \u201cessential to selecting their location,\u201d and 56 percent claimed a high-speed connection was essential to remain in their location. Unfortunately, 16 percent of economic development agencies reported that businesses frequently chose not to locate in an area due to insufficient broadband.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s more to come:<\/b><\/p>\n
The report gives providers a lot of information. Boyd said county and census track-level data will also be available upon request in the future.<\/p>\n
Other insights:\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
- \n
- Pricing within similar offerings and technologies is relatively consistent across the state.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- \n
- Reliability rated as even more important to households and businesses than speed or price, and concerns over reliability impacts consumers\u2019 willingness to purchase premium services.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- \n
- According to business and household respondents, fiber connectivity is the most reliable, fastest and most highly rated of Internet services by a significant margin. Cable and fixed wireless are rated as the next best, with DSL and mobile wireless performing at lower speeds and with less reliability. Satellite and dial-up are by far the poorest rated internet services based on reliability and value for money.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- \n
- Broadband internet enhances earning ability of households and provides employment and training opportunities. About 24 percent of participating households run a home-based business.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- \n
- Telework has quickly become an important internet-enabled activity, with almost 26 percent of participating households teleworking at least one day per week.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- \n
- The largest barriers to greater internet use for businesses are concerns over security and privacy. For households, the greatest barriers are the reliability and speed of the connection.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- \n
- Tennessee is above the national average for percentage of the population with download speeds of 50 Mbps, 100 Mbps or 1 Gbps.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- \n
- Only about 25 percent of Tennesseans have access to fiber.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- \n
- About 41 percent of businesses connect to the internet via cable, compared to 22 percent on DSL, 11 percent on fiber and 6.6 percent on fixed wireless.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- \n
- Nearly 60 percent of businesses are using cloud-based services, with an additional 13 percent considering it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thirteen percent of Tennesseans don\u2019t have broadband access, and most of them live in rural areas, according to the state\u2019s recently released broadband assessment. And, Economic and Community Development Commissioner Randy Boyd says it\u2019s probably going to take a mix of fiber and fixed wireless provided by telcos and electric providers to reach the residents…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[263],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennesseebroadband.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2073"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennesseebroadband.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennesseebroadband.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennesseebroadband.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennesseebroadband.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennesseebroadband.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2073\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennesseebroadband.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennesseebroadband.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennesseebroadband.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
- Nearly 60 percent of businesses are using cloud-based services, with an additional 13 percent considering it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
- About 41 percent of businesses connect to the internet via cable, compared to 22 percent on DSL, 11 percent on fiber and 6.6 percent on fixed wireless.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Only about 25 percent of Tennesseans have access to fiber.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Tennessee is above the national average for percentage of the population with download speeds of 50 Mbps, 100 Mbps or 1 Gbps.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- The largest barriers to greater internet use for businesses are concerns over security and privacy. For households, the greatest barriers are the reliability and speed of the connection.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Telework has quickly become an important internet-enabled activity, with almost 26 percent of participating households teleworking at least one day per week.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Broadband internet enhances earning ability of households and provides employment and training opportunities. About 24 percent of participating households run a home-based business.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- According to business and household respondents, fiber connectivity is the most reliable, fastest and most highly rated of Internet services by a significant margin. Cable and fixed wireless are rated as the next best, with DSL and mobile wireless performing at lower speeds and with less reliability. Satellite and dial-up are by far the poorest rated internet services based on reliability and value for money.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Reliability rated as even more important to households and businesses than speed or price, and concerns over reliability impacts consumers\u2019 willingness to purchase premium services.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Pricing within similar offerings and technologies is relatively consistent across the state.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n