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High Speed Internet Service for Rural America

High-speed Internet service has taken its place alongside roads, water, sewer, electricity and telephone service as a vital part of the modern American infrastructure. Recognizing this, President Obama has promised to extend broadband Internet service to all Americans – including the millions of households in rural America. By using satellite technology, we can achieve this goal quickly and affordably, all while stimulating businesses, creating jobs, and providing greater cost effectiveness and accountability to American taxpayers.

Extending land-based high-speed networks – wired or wireless – to every home in rural America would be both impractical and cost prohibitive. The economics of the projects offer little incentive to build the infrastructure in areas with less than 100 households per square mile. This explains why the larger telephone, cable and cellular operators are ubiquitous in metropolitan markets, but scarce in low-density rural areas. By contrast, deploying satellite networks works the same everywhere.

Indeed, any land-based solution for providing broadband Internet service to all of rural America would require massive startup and ongoing federal subsidies. By one calculation, a nationwide terrestrial network deployment would require five to ten years, and hundreds of thousands of towers, to construct. Indeed, the total cost of deployment would be in the tens of billions just for the towers. The necessary network components would add billions more. Meanwhile, the environmental impact of thousands more towers across America should not be ignored.

By contrast, a high-speed satellite network would require less than $1 billion, and could be up and running within three years. Furthermore, it would be universally available from the moment the satellite itself is in orbit.

In other words, satellites are uniquely suited for rapid deployment of high-speed Internet service to rural consumers and small businesses everywhere across America. Satellite broadband is a low-cost opportunity that can quickly stimulate job growth in highly skilled aerospace and other technical positions, as well as less skilled positions in call centers, and in service and installation categories.

A new generation of spot-beam, bent-pipe satellites capable of providing 10 Mbps broadband service to rural America have already been designed. Hence, this is a "shovel-ready" approach to providing vital infrastructure for rural America.

Currently, WildBlue Communications, based in Colorado, and Hughes Network Services, based in Maryland, are the only two companies that provide broadband Internet via satellite to rural America. Together, they provide service to nearly 1 million Americans who would otherwise lack high-speed service. These companies could provide millions more with an Internet connection far superior to what most of them experience simply by employing recent developments in space and ground technology.

Unfortunately the access to the private capital necessary to build and launch these next generation, high-capacity satellites has fallen victim to the current economic conditions. This is where the government can help.

By providing targeted financial assistance in the form of a grant, low-interest loan, or a loan guarantee for satellite providers, the Obama Administration and Congress can quickly unlock the potential of satellite broadband service in rural markets, and simultaneously create thousands of construction, launch, operations, call center, service and installation jobs.

Throughout rural America, satellite Internet has been quietly and successfully providing innovative and effective broadband to a growing number of customers. Recent enhancements in technology can greatly improve the service. If we rely only on terrestrial wireline and wireless solutions, as many as 10 million homes will remain on the wrong side of the digital divide for years to come.

We hardly expect rural America to go without roads, water, sewer, electricity and telephone service. And President Obama is right that we should no longer expect it to do so with broadband Internet. Satellite technology offers the quickest and most cost effective way to ensure that all Americans can participate equally in the information age.

 
David Leonard is CEO of WildBlue Communications, Inc.