News

February 26, 2010

HUTCHINSON, KS – When it comes to his Internet connection, there is no "or" for Michael Murphy of Flying M Ranch outside Sylvia.

"It isn't that it stinks or it is expensive," he said. "It stinks and it is expensive. It is really frustrating."

Since 2001, Murphy, a retired airline pilot and his wife, Janis, an EMT, have bred and sold Suri alpacas. As their business and herd has grown, so has their need for reliable Internet service. Unfortunately, that need has been left unfilled.

"The Internet is pretty vital to our business," Michael Murphy said. "A major part of the business in terms of making money is breeding and selling the animals. Our customers primarily find us on the Internet.

"We advertise in magazines and go to some shows, but even after people hear about us, they look for us on the Internet."

The Murphys have been able to build a Web page, but they can't update it often, as fast and reliable Internet connections are simply not available where they live.

"We chose to live out here," Murphy said. "And we like it. We enjoy our lifestyle. But when you live in the country sometimes it seems like everyone forgets about you."

Local, state, federal efforts

The Murphys' frustration is one that many rural residents and business owners share and one that the government - both state and federal - is trying to address.

"I've heard the lieutenant governor speak about this issue, and I believe he described it best," said Joe Monaco, public information officer with the Kansas Department of Commerce. "He compared the need for broadband Internet services to the electrification of rural America under the New Deal. Broadband is not just a quality-of-life issue.

"It is infrastructure that you need to run a business. It also provides citizens with access to governmental services and medical services, among other necessities."

Last year, the federal recovery act allocated $7.2 billion nationwide for broadband Internet infrastructure improvements. Broadband is a type of Internet connection that provides higher download speeds and better information-carrying capacity than a dial-up connection.

The money was split into two categories. Internet service providers and organizations proposing to undertake broadband infrastructure projects in rural areas are able to apply directly to the first pool.

For example, in November, Rural Telephone Company in Hays was awarded a $101 million grant/low-interest loan from the federal government to build a broadband network using fiber-optic cable throughout a 4,600-square-mile area of central and western Kansas.

A local company - Buhler-based IdeaTek Systems - also has submitted an application for a similar project in Reno County and surrounding counties and is still waiting to hear about funding awards.

IdeaTek has proposed a $59 million project that would build a broadband network of fiber-optic lines covering Reno County and spilling into Sedgwick, McPherson, Rice and Stafford counties as well.

"This is what we call fiber-to-the-home project, which delivers a fiber-optic line to each home," IdeaTek President Daniel Friesen said. "So we'd install fiber-optic cable lines that would basically pass by neighborhoods or farms or communities and from those lines we'd drop a second fiber-optic line directly to the homes of our customers."

The project, which garnered support from the Reno County Commission, would include 1,985 square miles in south-central Kansas and would affect 9,600 households, 500 businesses and 100 anchor public safety and health care institutions, Friesen said.

It also would be an economy booster.

"The project would include a lot of installation labor," Friesen said. "The cost just for contracting is $20-plus million over a three-year period."

The second pool of federal stimulus funds went to state government entities to spearhead broadband development efforts and create maps showing where gaps in service occur.

In December, Kansas received a $2 million matching grant to fund broadband mapping and planning - called Connect Kansas.

Approximately $1.5 million of the grant will be spent in the first two years of the project for mapping. The additional $500,000 has been set aside for broadband planning after the map is created.

The Connect Kansas maps should be complete in the next several weeks, Monaco said. Preliminary maps and more information about the Connect Kansas initiative are available now at www.connectkansas.org.

The maps will be a crucial tool that Internet service providers and public organizations can use when submitting grant applications to extend broadband infrastructure to rural Kansas, Monaco added.

Inequality

While there are several areas in Kansas - including some in Reno County - that are completely without Internet service, some believe the larger problem is the lack of equality in speed and price between Internet in rural areas versus urban areas.

"Most of the time if you're looking at whether someone has something that we can call high-speed Internet, the answer is yes," Friesen said. "But you have this disparity between urban and rural areas. The issue isn't that people are not getting served, but rather that the service they get is not at par with their urban counterparts.

"The problem for the farmer outside of town is that their best option is a wireless antenna on their house pointed at a tower. That's their best option, but they're getting a tenth of the speed you can get in town and they are probably paying more."

This is the situation Michael and Janis Murphy face.

The couple started out with a dial-up service, but didn't like being charged twice - once for the long distance call and once for actual Internet time. Plus it was slow.

"Then we worked with a company offering wireless service," Michael Murphy said. "They had a tower and we used an antenna to get the signal. That worked fairly well, but the business was sold and it kind of went to pot."

The Murphys were left with the choice of either satellite service or the use of a wireless Internet card. Because satellite service offers slower uploading speeds, they chose to use the card.

"But, we're out here in a low place and with the trees - it is iffy," Murphy said. "We run into all sorts of problems with it and it certainly is a struggle. It would be nice if there was something different."

Having high-speed Internet that is comparable to urban areas would make a "tremendous difference" to his business, Murphy said.

"It is difficult right now to keep my Web site up to date with all the uploading and downloading," he said. "Having the ability to actually use the Internet when you need to - to keep the information flowing and get things to people when they need them - that would be wonderful."

Closing the gap

With its application for federal funds, Friesen's company is seeking to close the gap between rural and urban Internet service.

"We want to get rid of that gap and in some cases give rural areas better service than what you'd find in urban areas," he said.

IdeaTek already has provided that type of service to the Buhler community, and it is not the only Internet service provider with that type of business plan.

In Grant County, for example, Pioneer Communications presently has under way a fiber-to-the-home project that will greatly expand the company's service offerings in southwestern Kansas towns and in rural areas.

Pioneer Communications already provides 6 Mbps (megabits per second) and 12 Mbps connection speed options to its 7,000 subscribers. To compare, Cox Cable's "essential" package offers speeds up to 3 Mbps, which is described as being "ideal for e-mail and simple Web surfing," and its "preferred" package offers speeds up to 15 Mbps, which is "great for music and photos."

The fiber-to-the-home network they are building is engineered for speeds of up to 100 Mbps and will cover their 5,600-square-mile service area, which spreads across a dozen counties.

"Early in our history we adopted an approach to offer the same speeds and the same price whether you live in or out of town," said Taylor Summers, director of marketing and media at Pioneer Communications. "We didn't want to see rural residents pay a penalty for living in a rural area. That approach has become clearer over the years as Internet no longer is just a tool, but is now a critical component to successful business, for schools and to stay connected."

Link to article here.