EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the first in a two-part series about the digital divide in Athens County.
For students at Ohio University, high-speed Internet access seems ubiquitous. From the dorms to computer labs and even through wireless access on College Green, students are able to connect wherever and whenever they want.
But in reality, there is a gap ' the digital divide ' between people who have access to the Internet and people who do not. Just as cell phone service gets spotty as one drives into the hills around Athens, so does Internet access. And without Internet access, people in rural Athens County are isolated not only from the rest of region, but also from educational and business opportunities.
I think the general assumption is that everybody can access the Internet
said David Matusoff, director of technology planning for Whiteboard Broadband Solutions in Columbus, a broadband consulting group. I don't think people are aware of (the digital divide).
What is the digital divide?
The digital divide is an umbrella term for the disparity between those who have Internet access and those who do not. The divide can manifest in several ways, including a physical access divide, a cost divide and a skill divide, said Lawrence Wood, assistant professor of telecommunications at Ohio University who teaches about the digital divide in his classes.
First, many places lack the physical infrastructure that makes Internet access possible, such as cables and wires, or access to high-speed broadband connections. Second, the high cost of broadband connections, especially in rural areas like Athens County, makes the Internet unaffordable for low- or fixed-income households. And third, a skills gap exists between those who have the education and experience of using the Internet and those who don't.
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Rural areas like Southeast Ohio are especially hard hit by the digital divide. On one hand, 62 percent of rural adults and 70 percent of urban and suburban adults have some kind of Internet access at home or work. But broadband is a different story. Only 24 percent of rural adults have access to broadband at home, while 39 percent of urban and suburban adults do in America, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, a nonprofit organization that reports on Internet trends.
Although broadband access is more available now than it was a few years ago, large pockets in remote rural areas still don't have access to affordable broadband ' or to any kind of broadband at all, Wood said.
Most rural areas have at least access to telephone lines, which can provide access to dial-up Internet connections.
But Web designers, assuming everyone has a broadband connection, increasingly incorporate interactive graphics and other multimedia into Web page design. Dial-up connections are often too slow to load even the simplest pages, Wood said.
Communities that don't have access to broadband don't have access to the 21st century Matusoff said. On a personal level on an educational level
and on a professional level
so much is done over the network today. And you cannot support those applications without access to broadband services.
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Scant investment
Few telecommunications firms make investments in rural areas. For the same investment in access infrastructure, a company can wire many more customers in an urban or suburban area than in a rural area where customers may live miles from one another.
There's no market. It's a significant capital investment for (companies) to create a broadband network. Matusoff said. When you're talking to a company and you're trying to get them to invest in an area where there's going to be very little or no return
it's not much of a sales pitch to the company.
Even with services such as satellite Internet that require much less investment in infrastructure, the high cost is prohibitive to many potential rural customers.
There still is
very much
that affordability issue for so many members of American society. Wood said.
In urban areas with many providers, prices are driven down by competition, higher incomes and smaller capital investments. But in rural areas, where there's little competition and greater investment for few customers, the cost of accessing the Internet is often much higher, Matusoff said.[video]http://www.youtube.com/v/hj3vynwOv_U[/video]
Educational divide
For elementary, middle school and high school students, a lack of access at home can spill over into the classroom. A student who had little or no access or training growing up will be at a significant disadvantage at the college level where Internet proficiency is assumed, Matusoff said. Though most schools have technology education programs and Internet access, precarious budget situations can make those programs vulnerable to cuts.
Although the state has technology standards, students aren't tested on them. So when budgets get tight ' as they have at other Athens County schools ' technology programs are often the first to go, said Diane Hobson, the technology instructor at Trimble Middle School in Glouster. Trimble, located about 12 miles from Athens, is the poorest school district in the state.
Because we're a small school with not a lot of money
if a program would have to go it would be a program like this
said Hobson, who helped start Trimble's technology program a few years ago.
For students who don't have technology education in middle and high school, transitioning to a wired campus like OU can be tough. Many students are intimidated by large universities' assumption that students are familiar with broadband and computers, and they can be scared away from those institutions, Hobson said.
