Two-Thirds of Iowans Have Broadband in Home, Connect Iowa Says, Urging Analysis of USF Impact

The report said 19 percent of state residents don’t own a home computer. That’s more than 431,000 adults, and more than two-thirds of them say they see no need for a computer. FCC data show that non-adopters tend to be older people, members of ethnic minorities, rural residents and people with disabilities, low income or low education, the report said.

Fixed, terrestrial broadband is available to 95 percent of Iowa households, and more than 99 percent can get fixed or mobile broadband service, Connect Iowa said, using a yardstick of 768 kbps down and 200 kbps up. “This implies that approximately 30 percent of Iowa households have basic broadband available but, for various reasons, are choosing not to subscribe to the service in their home,” the report said. “Of the 34 percent of Iowans without a home broadband connection, 45 percent report a lack of interest in broadband, 31 percent report a lack of a computer as the primary barrier to broadband, 21 percent say broadband is too expensive and 10 percent report lack of broadband availability at their home."

"Broadband adoption among rural residents in Iowa is not significantly lower than their urban or suburban counterparts,” the report said. “This is in marked contrast with FCC national estimates of home broadband adoption among rural residents (of 50 percent) and non-rural areas (where home broadband adoption is estimated at 68 percent). Unlike national trends, the Iowa adoption gap is not a rural versus non-rural phenomenon."

About 53,000 households, almost 5 percent, lack access to broadband service, the report said. About 88 percent can get broadband at 3 Mbps or faster down. This implies that about 89,000 households, almost 8 percent, can get basic service but not fixed broadband service of at least 3 Mbps down -- the speed often regarded as needed for effective use of many Internet applications, and so used by the NTIA in classifying a place as served by high-speed access, the report said. The report said the proportion of Iowa households with access to fixed or mobile broadband service at 6 Mbps is 77 percent.

But statewide estimates don’t “reflect the reality faced by each Iowa community,” the report added. County figures collected by Connect Iowa show large variations, underscoring the importance of “granular” information that can reveal gaps by community in infrastructure and adoption, the report said. The new map includes broadband data at the street and county levels, the report said.

Iowans with no computer at home fall into several categories, the report said: “I don’t need a computer, or don’t know why I need one” (69 percent); “too expensive” (24 percent); “I have a computer someplace else” (15 percent); “Computers are too complicated” (7 percent); “other” (2 percent).

Nearly two-thirds of Iowans who use the Internet search online for health or medical information, 29 percent use it to communicate with health insurers and 22 percent to interact with doctors or healthcare professionals. Many Internet users do government business online: 45 percent reported searching online about government services or policies, and 43 percent go online to file taxes, complete forms or engage in other transactions with government offices. Among those, 27 percent interact with state government, 23 percent with local government and 20 percent with elected officials or candidates.

Iowans embrace the Internet as an educational tool, the report said. Statewide, 44 percent do research for schoolwork online, 37 percent interact with teachers online and 21 percent take classes online. Among rural Internet users, 24 percent report taking classes online. “While rural Internet users are less likely than the state average to communicate with government offices or healthcare providers, they are more likely to conduct research for school and take classes online,” the report said.

Residents also embrace working online, the report said. Among Internet users, 54 percent interact online with businesses and 48 percent with co-workers, 38 percent go online to look for work and 30 percent report occasionally working online from home. Among employed adults, 14 percent report that they telework. “Teleworking could also provide an additional boost to the state’s workforce, as one-fifth of retirees, and over one-fourth of adults with disabilities and homemakers say they would likely join the workforce if empowered to do so by teleworking,” the report said.

The report’s authors studied the effects of federal Universal Service Fund programs -- high-cost loop support, local switching support and interstate-line sharing support -- across Iowa counties. The report contrasts information about these programs with estimates of broadband availability. “County-level eligibility for these USF programs partially explains broadband penetration across rural counties in Iowa,” the report said. Federal USF revamps under way probably will have statewide effects, it added. The authors recommended additional study of how comprehensive USF disbursements affect Iowa communities, as a way to measure the past, present and future impact of the federal USF program on the broadband market and to judge the effects of carrying out the National Broadband Plan.

To deal with the availability of broadband, additional study is needed of how overhauls of the federal USF and intercarrier compensation rules will play out across Iowa, the report said. Increased local and statewide coordination would bring economies of scale and promote efficiency of public investments, the report said. Possible steps include comprehensive planning for broadband in infrastructure projects; joint deployment of broadband conduit alongside state financed or enabled projects; creation of regional “Gigabit Communities” or “Broadband Corridors;”; and developing state master contracts to speed up placement of wireless towers on state property, the report said.

Policymakers should promote expansion of 3G and 4G networks by streamlining local and state rules and regulations affecting the cost and build-out speed of towers supporting networks, the report urged. Statewide smart grids would take advantage broadband infrastructure, “making Iowa a more efficient producer and consumer of energy,” it said. Iowa and other states also should continue to measure and map their broadband inventories, the report said, endorsing broadband maps as a tool for clarifying the challenges and opportunities.