Rural Broadband Availability and Adoption in Oklahoma 1 |
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Rural Broadband Availability and Adoption in Oklahoma file:////maindc/users/gphillips/PDFs%2073/Rural%20Broadband%20Availability%20and%20Adoption%20in%20Oklahoma.htm[3/14/2013 10:06:08 AM] Choices AAEA Rural Broadband Availability and Adoption in Oklahoma Brian E. Whitacre JEL Classifications: R22, D12 Rural areas generally lag behind their urban counterparts in terms of broadband Internet access, a discrepancy commonly known as the “digital divide.” Nationally, the divide was approximately 12 percentage points as of 2009, with 54% of rural households adopting broadband access compared to 66% in urban areas (NTIA, 2010). A large body of work has attempted to uncover the underlying causes of the divide, with the implication that shrinking the gap will positively benefit rural communities economically and socially (Strover, 2001; Malecki, 2003; Whitacre, 2010). The policy prescriptions resulting from this work have focused on one of two sides: supply—the availability of broadband infrastructure, such as cable Internet lines or Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL)—and demand—increasing adoption rates when broadband is available. In particular, the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) included funding both for broadband infrastructure grants/loans and for programs to encourage sustainable adoption. This paper uses the state of Oklahoma as a case study in examining both the availability of broadband access and adoption rates in rural vs. urban areas in three distinct time periods: 2003, 2006, and 2009. As might be expected, wired broadband availability first clustered in urban areas across the state, but diffused rapidly over time and became nearly equal by 2009. Similarly, adoption rates increased dramatically across the state, and although a significant rural-urban gap still exists, it has noticeably decreased as infrastructure and Internet awareness becomes more prevalent in rural areas. The paper concludes with a discussion of policy implications, noting that future efforts to close the rural-urban digital divide should emphasize demand-side policies rather than the traditional supply-side focus. Supply Data The federal government’s primary source of data regarding broadband infrastructure is the Federal Communication Commission’s Form 477. However, these data reveal where broadband subscribers currently exist and not necessarily where the infrastructure itself exists. Since Form 477 collects data from all providers of broadband access and asks them to report ZIP codes where they have customers, a single satellite subscriber in a rural area could give that ZIP code the illusion of having “wired” access. This is one reason why Form 477 indicated that as of December 2005, 99.9% of the most populated ZIP codes had broadband access, and even showed that 96.2% of the least-populated ZIP codes had broadband access. Thus, using this data source might suggest that there is little problem with broadband availability in rural America. However, the noted issues with this data suggest that alternative sources should be used to attempt to map out the existence of broadband infrastructure. In particular, the two dominant sources of residential broadband infrastructure have been cable Internet and DSL, together making up over 80% of the residential market (FCC, 2009). Maps of the availability of cable Internet access are documented in Warren Publishing’s annual TV and Cable Factbook, which lists every cable system in a state, denotes the communities served, and indicates whether or not cable Internet is offered. Similarly, the National Exchange Carrier Association Tariff #4 Dataset lists all telephone central offices in a state, the communities they serve, and whether or not they offer DSL access. These sources can be mapped to ZIP codes to document the existence of wired broadband infrastructure across a state. Data were collected from these sources in 2003, 2006, and 2009. The use of ZIP codes is not a precise representation; no publicly available information exists on the exact locations passed by either cable Internet or DSL lines in Oklahoma. In particular, some large ZIP codes depicted as having access may not be fully served, particularly for the more rural portions. However, in the absence of service provider maps, the data used is the next-best alternative.
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Title | Rural Broadband Availability and Adoption in Oklahoma 1 |
Full text | Rural Broadband Availability and Adoption in Oklahoma file:////maindc/users/gphillips/PDFs%2073/Rural%20Broadband%20Availability%20and%20Adoption%20in%20Oklahoma.htm[3/14/2013 10:06:08 AM] Choices AAEA Rural Broadband Availability and Adoption in Oklahoma Brian E. Whitacre JEL Classifications: R22, D12 Rural areas generally lag behind their urban counterparts in terms of broadband Internet access, a discrepancy commonly known as the “digital divide.” Nationally, the divide was approximately 12 percentage points as of 2009, with 54% of rural households adopting broadband access compared to 66% in urban areas (NTIA, 2010). A large body of work has attempted to uncover the underlying causes of the divide, with the implication that shrinking the gap will positively benefit rural communities economically and socially (Strover, 2001; Malecki, 2003; Whitacre, 2010). The policy prescriptions resulting from this work have focused on one of two sides: supply—the availability of broadband infrastructure, such as cable Internet lines or Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL)—and demand—increasing adoption rates when broadband is available. In particular, the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) included funding both for broadband infrastructure grants/loans and for programs to encourage sustainable adoption. This paper uses the state of Oklahoma as a case study in examining both the availability of broadband access and adoption rates in rural vs. urban areas in three distinct time periods: 2003, 2006, and 2009. As might be expected, wired broadband availability first clustered in urban areas across the state, but diffused rapidly over time and became nearly equal by 2009. Similarly, adoption rates increased dramatically across the state, and although a significant rural-urban gap still exists, it has noticeably decreased as infrastructure and Internet awareness becomes more prevalent in rural areas. The paper concludes with a discussion of policy implications, noting that future efforts to close the rural-urban digital divide should emphasize demand-side policies rather than the traditional supply-side focus. Supply Data The federal government’s primary source of data regarding broadband infrastructure is the Federal Communication Commission’s Form 477. However, these data reveal where broadband subscribers currently exist and not necessarily where the infrastructure itself exists. Since Form 477 collects data from all providers of broadband access and asks them to report ZIP codes where they have customers, a single satellite subscriber in a rural area could give that ZIP code the illusion of having “wired” access. This is one reason why Form 477 indicated that as of December 2005, 99.9% of the most populated ZIP codes had broadband access, and even showed that 96.2% of the least-populated ZIP codes had broadband access. Thus, using this data source might suggest that there is little problem with broadband availability in rural America. However, the noted issues with this data suggest that alternative sources should be used to attempt to map out the existence of broadband infrastructure. In particular, the two dominant sources of residential broadband infrastructure have been cable Internet and DSL, together making up over 80% of the residential market (FCC, 2009). Maps of the availability of cable Internet access are documented in Warren Publishing’s annual TV and Cable Factbook, which lists every cable system in a state, denotes the communities served, and indicates whether or not cable Internet is offered. Similarly, the National Exchange Carrier Association Tariff #4 Dataset lists all telephone central offices in a state, the communities they serve, and whether or not they offer DSL access. These sources can be mapped to ZIP codes to document the existence of wired broadband infrastructure across a state. Data were collected from these sources in 2003, 2006, and 2009. The use of ZIP codes is not a precise representation; no publicly available information exists on the exact locations passed by either cable Internet or DSL lines in Oklahoma. In particular, some large ZIP codes depicted as having access may not be fully served, particularly for the more rural portions. However, in the absence of service provider maps, the data used is the next-best alternative. |
Date created | 2013-03-14 |
Date modified | 2013-03-14 |
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