Most Hoosiers have access to some kind of Internet. The question is how fast is it?
Earlier this year, the Federal Communications Commission changed the definition of high-speed Internet from 4 megabits per second to 25 megabits per second.
The reason is that the functions we now regularly perform on the Internet (streaming video, downloading large files, etc.) needs faster download speeds.
That definition means 44 percent of Hoosiers living in rural Indiana don't have access to high-speed Internet, according to an FCC report released this year.
The consequences can be stark for rural communities. If they can't connect to high-speed Internet, they lose out on business deals and young people decide to move to bigger cities.
Randy Clark realized this about 10 years ago when he and one of his friends started an Internet company.
"We felt like if we didn't provide Internet services, then perhaps there'd be nobody that would provide them, and our college kids, our kids and grandkids would not come back to our communities if they couldn't have the same services they got accustomed to when they were in college or in big cities," Clark says.
In rural parts of the state, like here in Orange County, where Clark is headquartered, getting a high-speed Internet connection can be logistically difficult.
While the state has a good Internet fiber backbone that runs along the state's major highways, homes are spread out and that makes running Internet cables that last mile to customers' front doors costly, with little return on investment.
That's why Clark's model is different than typical hard-line Internet.
If you look way up above, on the railings on this water tower, you'll see dishes," Clark says as he stands underneath a water tower where large satellite-like dishes are attaches to the sides of the tower. "One of those points to Orleans, another points to Campbellsburg."
The dishes shoot the Internet via radio signals into people's homes. It generally works well, although there are some drawbacks.
Dense forests can block the signals, and farmers sometimes use the same radio frequency for GPS systems.
There's also speed. Most of Helix Technologies' connections provide download speeds of about 10 megabytes per second, so according to the FCC's definition, it's not high-speed Internet.
'Broadband-Ready' Communities
The state has taken some steps to improve rural Internet connectivity. The legislature this year approved a "broadband-ready" designation for counties and towns that strip away some of the barriers that keep Internet providers from getting into a community.
"The broadband ready certification is a strong message to those companies that that areas is ready for them and is welcoming to the kind of investment that's going to get them up to speed," says Rep. Eric Koch, R-Bedford, who authored the legislation.
The small town of Nashville in Brown County was the first town to receive the designation.
Nashville Town Manager Scott Rudd says having good Internet is crucial to boosting the town's economy. While there are only 1,000 people that live here, it's known for its tourism, so on a busy weekend, 10,000 to 20,000 people might visit.
"The 230 businesses here rely on the current technology," Rudd says. "People travel and they expect high speed Internet. It's a level we want to strive to meet just like a large city would."
To get the designation, the town council changed its local ordinances to require city officials respond to a permit request from an Internet provider within 10 days.
As technology continues to change, the challenge is to find the right technology at the right price point.
They're also making easements and city buildings available to accommodate any hardware the companies might need to install, and tapping Rudd as the single point of contact for all Internet companies.
"The single point of contact is important," says Indiana AT&T President Bill Soards. "The speed to market is very very important, and I'm excited that Indiana is the first state in the country to put into place such a program."
AT&T is one of the largest Internet providers in Indiana and already serves Nashville, but Soards says the broadband ready designation does provide the company an incentive to expand its service.
"Every community matters to us greatly. There is no community too small that's not of interest. As technology continues to change, the challenge is to find the right technology at the right price point," he says.
Soards says in a few years it might even be cheaper and more efficient for people to use wireless Internet--like the kind we use on our mobile devices--in place of WiFi. That would cut down on the need for hardware and make the Internet much more accessible to rural areas.
The Regulation Question
In Orange County, Clark says he's not sure what the future holds, but he's not going to stop working to get more people connected.
"The more you can provide these services to people when they come back to our community, the more likely they are to stay. That impacts our RNCs, it impacts our schools, it impacts everything about our way of life," he says.
That means if a community has high-speed, reliable Internet, its economy could thrive. If it doesn't, it will quickly be left behind.
