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By APRIL CASTRO
Associated Press
September 12, 2004
BLANCO, Texas - In this out-of-the-way stretch of Texas Hill Country, where cable TV is a distant hope, Deanna Glaze is considering a subscription to broadband Internet.
"Man, this high-speed Internet is fast," the 21-year resident of Blanco said as she tested the free broadband access at the Blanco courthouse. "I never knew it made that much difference."
Broadband service is becoming more available in rural parts of Texas thanks to state grants and other programs aimed at helping communities get linked to the Internet. President Bush has vowed to bring high-speed Internet to every American household by the year 2007.
The networks, known as wireless fidelity or Wi-Fi, allow users to access fast Internet connections without the need of a phone line. The technology is popular in coffee shops and airports, where patrons can quickly check their e-mail or surf the Web from their laptops.
Nationally, broadband grew from about seven million subscribers in December 2000 to nearly 24 million in June 2003. About 90 percent of all U.S. zip codes have access to at least one form of broadband connection, up from about 70 percent at the end of 2000.
Without the state grants, rural areas went without Internet service because there weren't enough customers for providers to justify cable or DSL networks, said Claiborn Crain, a spokesman with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Development Service.
"It doesn't make financial sense for them ... at least at this stage," Crain said. "They're fighting over more densely populated markets."
Seeing an untapped opportunity, Mike Bates, president of Summa Associates, a rural economic development firm, began seeking out various government grants to help rural communities set up broadband wireless networks. So far, Bates has developed networks in 25 Texas towns, like Blanco, a small ranching town of 1,500 residents about 40 miles outside Austin.
Local provider Momentum Online partnered with Bates to set up wireless access points in a three-county area. Momentum installs receivers at the homes of subscribers that capture the signals from the nearest antenna. About 700 subscribers pay $39.99 a month for the service.
At the Blanco courthouse, access is free. A sign that sits on the courthouse square announces "Free and Fast Internet Here! For visitors and townies."
Tourists passing through the Hill Country on U.S. Highway 281 see the sign and stop at the courthouse to surf the Internet for area attractions - the best wildflower trails or the most unique restaurants. Traveling professionals wander in to check their e-mail on their own laptops.
And locals come in just to see what the fuss is all about.
On this day, Glaze shows her friends, all wearing red hats, where their local chapter of the Red Hat Society is listed on the national organization's Web site. Members of the society, mostly women ages 50 and older, gather in more than 20,000 chapters to celebrate the aging process, often dressing in purple and wearing red hats.
Across the state in Fort Davis, a remote West Texas perch in the Davis Mountains, teachers use their broadband connections to create interactive sites for classes. They post homework assignments and conduct real-time discussions with students and parents, Bates said.
Tom Rains, a math teacher at Fort Davis High School, posts a "daily objective" on the site.
"Students can actually go there and see what's going to happen that day in class," Rains said.
In the past, Bates has drawn on Texas' Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund, created by lawmakers to spur telecommunications growth in Texas, to establish rural service. Legislators eliminated the fund last year, but while it was in operation 80 communities received grants. Overall, Texas spent almost $1 billion to bring computers and broadband connections into schools, libraries, hospitals and colleges.
Bates now helps communities secure other state and federal grants and loans, such as a fund set up by the USDA, to establish broadband connections.
Hilda Legg, the administrator for the USDA loan program, compares the broadband effort to President Roosevelt bringing electricity to rural areas in the 1930s as part of his New Deal initiatives. Broadband will become intrinsic, "just as, for my generation, operating without electricity is unimaginable," she said.
"A community may have a major highway, may have an industrial manufacturing
base, but without a broadband connection, it will not be able to survive in
the future," she said. "Young people are not going to stay without
broadband, without access."