BROADBAND ACCESS IN IOWA

BROADBAND ACCESS IN IOWA In order for Iowa to fully realize the economic, social, and quality of life benefits promised by high-speed Internet servic...
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BROADBAND ACCESS IN IOWA In order for Iowa to fully realize the economic, social, and quality of life benefits promised by high-speed Internet service, broadband networks must be widely available and continuously improving to meet the increased needs of Internet applications and services. A broad disparity in broadband access exists between rural and urban areas in Iowa, yet most communities have express a shared desire for faster broadband Internet service than is available today. While Broadband is very important in our some urban areas desire gigabit service, there are rural counties in efforts to improving education, Iowa for which expanded availability of a network capable of creating more jobs, and providing providing 6 Mbps download speeds (a speed that is now slower more efficient government services. than the minimum required network deployment to receive Whether you live in rural or urban federal broadband subsidies) to most of its households would Iowa, connecting our communities is represent a giant leap forward. Every community in Iowa shares vital to the future prosperity of our the common need for ongoing investment in the state’s broadband state. infrastructure that is broad in geographic scope and continual in its Debi Durham, Director of the Iowa improvement. Economic Development Authority For this reason, an important part of the Connect Iowa project has been, and continues to be, to extensively map and research broadband investment and availability throughout the state at various technology, speed, and quality tiers. In addition, Connect Iowa validates and verifies this data frequently through direct site visits by certified network engineers.

Mapping Since 2009, Connect Iowa has researched and mapped growth and gaps in Iowa broadband access in accordance with the Department of Commerce’s and Federal Communications Commission’s broadband definitional changes. Connect Iowa’s broadband maps contain data from 201 providers statewide collected twice each year from 20102014. TM

Connect Iowa also provides My ConnectView , a publicly available, interactive mapping tool capable of delivering TM customized searches and detailed connectivity options at the address level. Since its launch, My ConnectView has received 15,404 visits. The data composed by Connect Iowa is also submitted for additional analysis and use in the National Broadband Map, the first searchable inventory of broadband services across the country. The National Broadband Map is released and maintained by the U.S. Department of Commerce, National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), in collaboration with the Federal Communications Commission, and in partnership with 50 states, five territories, and the District of Columbia.

The Broadband Availability Gap in Iowa Iowa’s 2014 broadband landscape demonstrates strong growth in infrastructure and deployment. Since October 2010, 29,702 additional households have gained access to broadband service statewide at speeds of 768 Kbps download/200 Kbps upload.

Connect Iowa Final Grant Report

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As of October 2014, 93.99% of Iowa households had broadband access at 3 Mbps download/768 Kbps upload and 18,543 fewer households were unserved by this speed than in October 2011 (excluding mobile wireless and satellite services). Further, rural broadband availability at 3 Mbps download/768 Kbps upload increased from 86.75% in 2011 to 89.22% in 2014.

The state has also shown increased access and competition among the higher broadband speed tiers:

Households Served by Speed Tier

Number of Facilities-Based Broadband Providers 4+ Providers

3 Providers

2 Providers

1 Provider

Unserved

3 Mbps/768 Kbps

183,909

252,022

489,973

222,263

73,409

3 Mbps/768 Kbps (Percent)

11.89%

16.30%

31.69%

14.37%

4.75%

10 Mbps/1.5 Mbps

11,189

81,845

318,559

573,267

236,716

10 Mbps/1.5 Mbps (Percent)

0.72%

5.29%

20.60%

37.08%

15.31%

25 Mbps/3 Mbps

0

3,843

270,762

622,364

324,607

25 Mbps/3 Mbps (Percent)

0.00%

0.25%

17.51%

40.25%

20.99%

In addition to the above speed and provider details, since 2011, broadband service at 50 Mbps download/1.5 Mbps upload has increased 54.08 percentage points and service at 100 Mbps download/1.5 Mbps upload has increased 65.08 percentage points (both excluding mobile wireless and satellite services). The number of fiber providers increased from 65 in 2010 to 83 in 2014. Despite this positive progress, significant gaps persist in Iowa, particularly throughout rural, more sparsely populated areas of Iowa. Further, broadband availability and competition in Iowa decrease as speeds increase.

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As Internet and web applications continue to develop, along with the number of connected devices in a typical household or business, there is an increasing need for faster, more robust broadband speeds. The National Broadband Plan, released in 2010, recommended a national broadband speed target for households and small businesses of 4 Mbps download/1 Mbps upload. The National Broadband Plan also recommended that the FCC reassess this target every four years. As such, in January 2015, the FCC adjusted the definition of “advanced broadband” to 25 Mbps download/3 Mbps upload. In adopting this target, the FCC found that 17 percent of the U.S. population did not have access to 25 Mbps/3 Mbps broadband, and when available, consumers were subscribing to broadband at these higher speeds. The FCC also determined that over half of rural Americans did have not access to 25 Mbps down/3 Mbps up connectivity. Broadband availability in Iowa resembles this national pattern, but the urban and rural divide is starker. According to the most recent Connect Iowa data, 73.43% of households in Iowa have access to 25 Mbps download/3 Mbps upload broadband

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networks. However, 324,606 households continue to be marginalized with broadband speeds below this national benchmark. The overwhelming majority of

not directly map infrastructure facilities and will not necessarily provide information on various speed tiers and network technologies. Instead, the FCC will collect data only relating to the retail maximum

The Iowa Broadband Map is the foundation upon which policy leaders and industry will build to plan to bring highspeed Internet access to the unserved and underserved parts of Iowa. Robert Bentsen Chairman Iowa Utilities Board (2010)

the areas in Iowa without access is located in rural regions of the state. Households with access to 25 Mbps download/3 Mbps upload are located in areas that only comprise 8.79% of Iowa’s geographic area, with the 26.57% of Iowa households unable to access broadband at the national benchmark speed dispersed across the remaining 91.21% of the state. Broadband access, and the applications it supports, is a transformative technology that is having an immediate and comprehensive impact on virtually every sector of the Iowa economy (such as agriculture), every level of the government (such as public safety), and overall social welfare (including K12 and post-secondary education). Both urban and rural communities alike in Iowa recognize that broadband is critical infrastructure for economic development and quality of life. However, communities and vulnerable populations without such access are unable to take full advantage of the benefits of technology and are at risk of being further isolated by the digital divide. Ongoing infrastructure assessments and state policy that promotes widespread availability will be instrumental in achieving equitable, ubiquitous access. Efforts to bridge the broadband availability gap in Iowa need to continue, especially as consumers, businesses, and policymakers seek ever-increasing broadband speeds. Iowa should continue to track and monitor broadband availability and infrastructure in the state at various speed and quality levels. The FCC has begun collecting data on the availability of retail fixed and mobile broadband, with plans to publish those findings twice annually. However, while that data will be useful, the FCC will

Connect Iowa Final Grant Report

offered speed for residential and business fixed broadband services. For mobile broadband services, the FCC will only collect “minimum advertised” speed, portions of which might not be publicly released. In rural areas, the FCC data will only be 2 collected at the census block level. Over the last five years, Connect Iowa has mapped broadband infrastructure in a manner that allows for the matching of broadband infrastructure to state institutional needs. Because the FCC will only collect

2

Modernizing the FCC Form 477 Data Program, Federal Communications Commission, WC Docket No. 11-10, Report and Order, 28 FCC Red 9887, 2013. The FCC was to have started collecting this data on October 1, 2014, but the FCC suspended that data collection due to difficulties with its electronic filing Interface. See Form 477 Filing Interface Remains Closed as Technical Improvements are Implemented, Federal Communications Commission, Wireline Competition Bureau, WC Docket No. 11-10, Public Notice, DA 14·1458, Oct. 2014.

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advertised retail service availability, even if that data were to be made available to Iowa, it would not support those important state needs for infrastructure planning and economic development. In addition, with regard to retail broadband availability, the Connect Iowa program collects multiple speed tiers for both fixed and mobile technology and independently validates those capabilities. In rural areas, Connect Iowa collects broadband retail service availability at a sub-census block level, which is more granular than the current FCC data process, and regularly processes inquiries from citizens, communities, and providers on service availability. This type of hands-on, local engagement allows for and encourages solutions-driven collaboration between providers and communities.

Connect America Fund Implications for Iowa As the previous maps identify, Iowa has made a significant impact in broadband availability over the last five years; however, opportunities remain to improve access to advanced broadband speeds and ensure that all Iowa businesses, governments, and residents have equitable connectivity. Connect Iowa has used the broadband infrastructure information it has collected and validated to work directly with communities and providers to solve access gaps in their communities. One important example is the enormous effort many Iowa communities made to participate in an FCC experimental program that would provide direct funding for network upgrades. In January 2014 the FCC created the Rural Broadband Experiment program (RBE). The launch of the program marked the first time that the FCC had considered investing a portion of its $4 billion per year telecommunications network subsidy program into an application-based, competitive bidding framework. Part of the Connect America Fund (CAF), the Rural Broadband Experiment program sought to determine how the FCC could allocate broadband network subsidies to rural communities in a costeffective way. Eligible areas for the RBE program were defined as any area without access to fixed broadband at the 3 Mbps download/768 Kbps upload speed. In those areas within the service territories of larger, price cap local telephone companies (AT&T, CenturyLink, Frontier, Windstream), the FCC sought projects that would serve entire census tracts that include unserved census blocks. In early 2014, the FCC solicited “expressions of interest” from providers, communities, institutions, and public-private partnerships regarding their ideas and proposals on how they could use CAF subsidies to support broadband infrastructure build-out in currently unserved areas. The FCC received nearly 1,000 expressions of interest from applicants across the country, 55 of which were from Iowa. Applicants in Iowa included small rural ILECs, CLECs, fixed wireless providers, cable providers, a state communications association, municipal utilities, a Native American tribe, and a broadband taskforce of various

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community partners. The proposed technology solution included the use of fiber, fixed wireless, and a statewide white spaces network; however, the majority of proposals included fiber deployment either in whole or in part. Proposed project scopes ranged from county-level deployments to projects to serve existing broadband gaps across the entire state. Project funding requests ranged from $250,800 to as much as $58.9 million in subsidies and the overall budget for all 41 proposed projects was upward of $401 million. Among the submissions, several mentioned the Connect Iowa program in support of their expression of interest. For example, Eastlight L.C. and MediaCom Communications utilized maps provided by the Connect Iowa program to develop their submissions. Additionally, Howard County developed a taskforce that submitted using community access information from Connect Iowa to help identify the need for greater broadband build-out. Please see Appendix 4 for the full list of expressions of interest from Iowa. In December 2014, the FCC Wireline Competition Bureau announced the 40 provisional winners in the Rural Broadband Experiment project; three of these provisional winners were from Iowa. Bidder

State

Annual Subsidy

Networks Capable of Delivering 100 Mbps download/25 Mbps upload LTD Broadband LLC. Skybeam, LLC

IA, MN

$20,000,000

IA, NE, IL, KS, TX

$8,839,194

Networks Capable of 10 Mbps down/1 Mbps up in Eligible Unserved Areas Allamakee-Clayton Electric Cooperative

IA

$1,453,593

Validation Provider engagement and validation are essential to gathering meaningful, accurate data regarding Iowa’s broadband ecosystem. Over the past five years, Connect Iowa has developed strong relationships with 201 commercial and residential broadband providers across Iowa to collect the extensive datasets that populate the state broadband maps. To ensure its accuracy, Connect Iowa validates all data received from participating providers. Connect Iowa’s validation process is informed with, among other methods, broadband inquiries provided by consumers and local stakeholders. In areas of the state in which providers are unable to supply broadband data, Connect Iowa employs several techniques to estimate the service territory. Connect Iowa uses this data to build consumer awareness regarding service options available in their area, and encourage provider infrastructure build-out in localities without coverage. Detailed, accurate broadband data enables more than informed decision-making. Connect Iowa’s mapping and validation helps bring broadband to rural areas of the state and eliminates the connectivity gap among industries traditionally not associated with the Internet, such as agriculture. As a result, Iowa businesses are able to transition from locally dependent businesses to nationally competitive operations.

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In total, Connect Iowa has engaged 202 providers across the state and experienced a 99.5% provider participation rate in its data gathering and broadband mapping initiative; additionally, one non-participating provider’s service area was estimated and included in the data collection. Since 2010, 7,441 speed tests were taken across the state, and Connect Iowa engineers have traveled an estimated 52,339 miles to validate provider coverage, offer technical support, and address the 257 broadband inquiries submitted via the Connect Iowa website. As of the final SBI grant submission, 93.07% of viable providers have been validated through Connect Iowa’s field verification activities. More than 3.5 million broadband records were prepared over the 10 SBI submissions to NTIA.

Validation Case Study: Webster City, Iowa While the community was in the Connected Community Engagement Program, the community broadband team determined that fiber was indeed present but was not sure where exactly within the community. Connect Iowa staff facilitated a meeting with area middle-mile and residential providers to determine where fiber was available – both dark fiber and lit fiber. Following the meeting, Connect Iowa’s Engineering and Technical Services (ETS) staff performed validation efforts, and it was determined that the community met the backhaul requirements of the Connected Community Engagement Program.

For further information on Connect Iowa’s validation processes, see Appendix 5.

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