Narrowing the digital divide has become a top priority in the nation since COVID-19 hit in 2020. Millions of dollars in federal funding have been dispersed to help expand broadband, along with many private organizations pulling together to help fund projects. So why are some Michigan residents still struggling to get connected?
In rural and urban areas of Michigan, there are still hundreds of thousands of residents that still lack access to high-speed internet. In today’s world, this is unacceptable as it is the key to connecting to friends and family, buying goods and services, accessing healthcare, performing their jobs, and completing their education. Federal data shows the average percentage of households in Michigan’s 83 counties without high-speed internet is 17.5%. Not only that, but 13.5% of those households do not have smartphones, computers, or tablets to be able to connect to the internet.
23 Michigan counties remain unserved in rural and urban areas, which means they have access to speeds under 25Mbps download and 3Mbps upload. The FCC defines “unserved” areas as communities where 80% of the population has no access to broadband or no access to high-speed broadband. The president of CMS Internet, Jeremy Sheets, has tried expanding high-speed broadband to more customers across Michigan but with the cost to install the underground infrastructure, it is not feasible.
“The biggest challenge to expanding broadband is a simple math problem. If it cost X amount of dollars to run fiber a specified distance and in one area, you’re gonna pass 50 homes and in a very rural area you might pass three homes, the return on investment makes it a lot harder to justify running fiber into those rural areas. It costs the same to deploy a mile of fiber whether we pass 50 houses or whether we pass five.” – Jeremy Sheets, President of CMS Internet.
Many rural residents have fixed wireless internet because it is cheaper to install over a larger, more rural area. Recent technology advances have helped improve the capacity and quality of fixed wireless helping raise the speeds to 25Mbps or higher. Provider competition in the marketplace drives the increase in the overall capacity of broadband infrastructure leading to higher speeds. Sheets believes this is the best way to expand broadband instead of Michigan investing millions. Access is not the only reason residents do not have high-speed internet; the cost is a contributor as well. 865,000 households face barriers related to affordability, adoption, and digital literacy.
The solution to broadband is not the same for every region, they all have their own unique challenges. Internet is a necessity in today’s world and communities need to find a way to get quality service to all their residents, even those living in rural areas.
To find out more about Michigan’s struggles and the efforts being taken to narrow the digital divide, click on the following link: https://www.govtech.com/network/some-michigan-residents-disconnected-from-high-speed-internet
North Region Communication Center 