Ritter Communications (formerly
Millington Telephone Company) is among the 37 entities expressing interest in rural broadband experiments (RBEs) to build out broadband in unserved rural areas over the next decade. The FCC recently made $100 million available to fund the RBE program nationally, and
Connected Tennessee is assisting interested providers or communities in understanding the application process.
"In Tennessee, there are 31,000 businesses that do not use broadband according to data published by Connected Tennessee in 2013," says Connected Tennessee Executive Director Corey Johns. "More than 691,000 Tennessee households do not subscribe to home broadband, citing relevance as the main barrier, leaving more than 238,000 Tennessee school-age children without broadband at home. As far as access to fixed broadband is concerned, 93,000 adult Tennesseans are without access for speeds of at least 768k/200k."
Connected Tennessee provides data, mapping and policy support to a variety of potential applicants, and it hosted a
webinar earlier this year with FCC representatives to answer RBE questions.
"Coaxial is more of a legacy technology, but there aren't many providers designing pure coax systems. It's typically a hybrid with fiber or extension of the already-existing coax system deployed in a city or area," Johns explains. "Fiber offers the highest potential bandwidth for consumers and is most often associated with ultra-high-speed networks. It is, however, expensive to deploy making it harder to provide, particularly in less populated locations."
He thinks fixed wireless deployments offer a solution in areas where installing wired infrastructure can be prohibitively expensive, often making it much more feasible for a provider to offer services.
RBE applications are due October 14.
By Michael Waddell
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