Living in the
Last Mile: How to Improve Rural Internet Access
Internet
access, and in my case, broadband, is often taken for granted. When you don't
have the same access, you quickly realize how valuable it is.
By Ben Bajarin @benbajarinOct. 14, 20134 Comments
·
Hello, my name is Ben and I live in the last mile.
I am part of the 30% of Americans who don’t have real broadband access at
home. And no, this is not by choice…entirely.
Five years ago, my wife and I decided to move slightly south of
By decent broadband, I mean something that is even remotely comparable to
the city and suburban areas. At my office in
My access comes from a line-of-sight ISDN provider who services many of my
neighbors and others in my town. Satellite is an alternative; it has too many
latency issues to be usable for me, although many in our area do have satellite
broadband.
Now for web browsing, email, and simple tasks this is not an issue. In
fact, 3-5 Mbps can even work for online gaming, but it certainly pushes the
limits: Countless times, I have experienced glitches paying Call of Duty online with friends.
The biggest area this impacts is the downloading or streaming of video. I
would love to use Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime video, and rent or buy movies
from iTunes, but the wait-to-stream videos or the downgrade in the quality of
the video is just too painful. When you live in the last mile, instant
on-demand streaming video is neither instant nor on-demand.
So How Do We Fix
This?
Obviously, the answer is technology. And in this case, I feel the best
solution to this problem is wireless technology. This answer also provides
perhaps the greatest challenge. LTE adoption rates in the
Even if this timeline holds true, new network technology deployment
strategies will be required from wireless Internet service providers. Today,
network operators deploy a single cell tower to service an entire area. This
will continue to work in rural areas to a degree, but will be more difficult in
more populated areas. Current network deployment is called a large cell
network. This is where one cell tower is designed to cover a large area. In the
future, it may actually be in small cells. This deployment would use many
smaller cells to cover the same areas. It would allow for more consistent data
speeds and quality of service, and it would serve larger populations more
efficiently.
If wireless technology can be deployed and offered at price points
affordable for the mass market, then it can become a legitimate solution. Even
if this is not deployed in many areas with a traditional router or modem but
with mobile devices — like tablets or smartphones that are used as hotspots —
it will still require a significant amount of network infrastructure that does
not exist today.
Not Just
Advancements in wireless technology as a solution for pervasive broadband
is important for America, but it’s vital for many other countries where running
miles of fiber is simply not an option. It is imperative to bring broadband to
as many people on the planet as possible since it opens up many doors to life,
education and broader societal development.
Without question, the highest priority is bringing food, clean water, and
other infrastructure to these regions, but from a developmental standpoint for
the next 25 to 50 years, I think it’s reasonable to include Internet access on
the list as well. And in most — if not all — of these regions, wireless
technology will be the only viable solution.
Internet access, and in my case, broadband, is often taken for granted.
When you don’t have the same access, you quickly realize how valuable it is. I
live in the last mile and it’s a challenge for me, given my line of work. But
the important thing to remember is that there are still billions of people who
have no access at all.
Bajarin is a principal at Creative Strategies Inc., a technology industry analysis and market
intelligence firm in
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