But Georgia’s utilities regulator is being asked to look again at the balance between the cost of rural telecommunications versus the subsidies urban providers like AT&T and big cable companies must send to wire their country cousins. That’s at the same time Washington is pushing small rural telecommunication companies to roll out next-generation broadband.
“There’s nobody that will even look at you, will come to an industrial park or a county that doesn’t have that (broadband) infrastructure in place.”
Under law, everyone in Georgia must be offered reasonably affordable access to basic telephone service, even though it costs more to wire a distant farmhouse than a company can recoup in a timely way. So companies in urban areas -- who can hook up hundreds of customers in a high-rise on a mile of cable in the ground -- have to pay into a fund to subsidize rural customers.
A 2010 Georgia telecoms law tightened up several rules including on what small telecoms can legitimately claim from that subsidy fund, called the Universal Access Fund. Since then, AT&T and three small telecoms have been wrangling in front of Georgia’s utilities regulator, after the three made the first claim under the new law.
The outcome matters because “the general financial well-being of a company may affect what they can offer otherwise” in services like broadband, says John Silk, executive vice president of the Georgia Telephone Association, an industry group that counts 29 small telecom members. The fund paid out about $9 million last year.
AT&T, which serves Atlanta and is the chief net contributor to the fund, says the 2010 law “recognized that companies were abusing the Universal Access Fund,” according to a written statement by spokeswoman Stephanie Walker. “AT&T believes that the companies should show they are doing what they can to minimize the amount they collect from the fund.”
Indeed, an audit from before 2010 shows abuses like fancy trips and property bought by some of the subsidized small companies. Both AT&T and small telecoms spent thousands on lobbying as the law worked its way through the state Legislature.
Yet “the UAF is a vital component of communications in the US,” Silk argued. Besides Georgia’s fund, there is a federal Universal Service Fund.
More hearings are scheduled next week. The regulators at the Public Service Commission could return a decision as early as September.
When basic is not enough
More than 99 percent of Georgians can order broadband that theoretically downloads at 3 megabits per second, enough to stream a high-definition movie, at some price, according to federal data. Traffic and other factors can force a slowdown. But mere broadband is no longer enough anyway, especially for schools and other institutions.
“For most rural applications on the telemedicine level, a T1 (1.5 mbps) has worked well. ... We know video is going to need 3 to 4 mbps,” according to Rich Calhoun, who directs the broadband program at the Georgia Technology Authority.
In English, that means on a T1, a Macon specialist physician can examine something relatively simple, like a wound, on a patient who is under a special camera in a south Georgia hospital. Students watching video lectures, for example, that lets them peer through a distant microscope, will need higher resolution and the higher speed.
If a school wants to stream several such videos or download large files simultaneously, they’ll need an even bigger pipeline.
Right now in Crawford County, for example, Public Service Telephone Company offers 3 mbps at $44.95 per month and even faster, pricier plans. “Service and speed not available in all areas,” reads the small print in an ad. Broadband service starts at .256 mbps.
The FCC’s National Broadband Plan of 2010 calls for reasonable nationwide access to 4 mbps actual download speed -- no traffic jams allowed. They’re aiming their own USF toward projects that do that, not just subsidize a phone at the farmhouse.
Under the American Recovery Reinvestment Act, Georgia drew $174 million from those federal funds to improve rural broadband capacity.
Better technology, like some wireless transmission, will probably help bring better, faster service to rural areas, Calhoun noted. But he added that existing satellite or wireless connections are not as reliable, fast or cheap as copper or fiber optics.
“The biggest challenge for rural populations is the business case, the return on investment for telecom providers,” said Calhoun.
In other words, it’s not clear how quickly a company can turn a profit from wiring distant peach farms, if they can do it at all.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Maggie Lee
Quelle/Source: Macon Telegraph, 28.08.2011
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