Hundreds of people tuned in on their sofas last Friday morning to watch Connect Ohio’s live broadcast of the first quarter Technology Association meeting at the Vern Riffe Center in Columbus.
The nonprofit organization and division of Connected Nation released the most up-to-date broadband service map for Ohio, illustrating where each county stands in terms of percentage of people with broadband access.
In comparison to various surrounding counties in Appalachia, Athens is more advanced with 92.04 percent of its residents having access to broadband service. The nearest county with more access is Ross County with 99.04 percent.
Being a college town boosts Athens' numbers because of the large student population that surrounding counties lack, said Amanda Murphy, spokeswoman for Connect Ohio.
While Athens is somewhat advanced for Appalachia’s standards, their broadband access averages tend to be below the Ohio average. As of 2011, 63 percent of Athens residents have broadband access at home — 3 percent below the Ohio average but a 28 percent increase since 2008.
The likely cause for the spike in broadband access is that Athens’ population is in a concentrated area, said Stu Johnson, executive director of Connect Ohio.
“The majority of the people in Athens are concentrated in one area, which is very different from, say, Monroe County where everything is spread out,” Johnson said. “There is more efficiency to be gained with the broader population there is.”
One of Connect Ohio’s goals is to bring the benefits of universal broadband to the state and to deliver widespread access and use of broadband to Ohio, said research analyst Travis Lane.
“Businesses in Appalachia Ohio are significantly less likely to have a website than the Ohio average,” Lane said. “Lack of broadband access may limit businesses from expanding.”
Numerous companies use broadband access to promote their own business, including Diagnostic Hybrids, Sunpower and Global Cooling, said Todd Shelton, director of the Athens County Economic Development Council.
“Broadband is really critical for businesses to thrive and I’m happy to see it becoming more common in Athens and among the public,” Shelton said.
Many companies look to web sites and web builders for expansion, said JobsOhio general manager, Mark Patton.
“Most companies hire a web firm to build the databases if you don’t know how to do it,” Patton said. “However, some people who build the sites for you don’t know your business, and that is where the problem arises.”
Connect Ohio hosts a Technology Association meeting each quarter of the year, updating stakeholders and citizens of recent projects and accomplishments.
“The recent meeting dealt with how broadband is crucial for job growth, and the next two will deal with the importance of broadband for healthcare and for education,” Johnson said.
Connect Ohio is set to hold an Appalachian Broadband Review session at Ohio University’s School of Information and Telecommunication Systems on April 27.
az346610@ohiou.edu
