Debbi Hoagland's family never splurged for broadband Internet until her son began classes at Ohio University's Lancaster branch a year ago.
It's expensive
but so much more convenient said Hoagland, who uses Time Warner Cable. When we had dial-up it took forever to connect and changing pages would sometimes take 45 seconds.
Citizens of Fairfield County's more rural areas have suffered the hassles of dial-up Internet for years. But a $2.3 million grant-loan combination awarded in March to Intelliwave Inc. could change the standard, making broadband Internet - with a wireless option - available to all of Pickaway and Fairfield counties and parts of Athens County.
Southeast Ohio can be a difficult market (for broadband)
said Chris Cooper, the president of Intelliwave. If you look around
we've got rugged terrain
low population densities
and that makes it difficult for people to make broadband investments in the area.
Athens County consistently falls short of statewide averages for Internet and computer use, according to data from the Connect Ohio county profile, which states that 41 percent of Athens residents have neither dial-up nor broadband Internet, compared to 30 percent statewide.
According to the same report, high cost and low availability of Internet play primary roles in determining these percentages. Athens households making less than $35,000 per year are slightly more likely to have Internet access than those in other Ohio counties.
Households that earn more than $35,000 are slightly less likely to have Internet than in other counties, but more likely to have it than other residents of Athens.
The grant can be used only to purchase equipment and labor, not administrative salaries or overhead costs. It is part of a joint effort by Connect Ohio and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to expand broadband access to rural parts of Ohio. After an arduous application process, Intelliwave became one of 68 companies in the first of two application rounds to receive the federal money.
That means that within the three counties, Intelliwave is the only Internet service provider that can use the federal money, which is expected to arrive from the USDA within the next two months.
The application judging included need of the area and experience of the provider company. The grant stipulated that the regions receiving the money must be underserved or not served, Cooper said.
The grant could potentially benefit 11,232 households, according to a press release from the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association.
Once Intelliwave receives the grant money, it will drop the introductory rate from its current rate of $49.95 to $34.95 per month for Internet access - a slightly discounted price meant to make it more affordable for most households.
(It's efficient) for communication
for access to education
for access to health care
for business transactions
for entertainment ... the Internet is built around broadband
