Because America birthed the Internet decades ago and used phone lines and cable connections to set up the network, the country now relies on aging infrastructure that needs replacing with newer, faster technologies, said Tyler Cooper, editor-in-chief of industry publication BroadbandNow.
Latecomers like South Korea outperform the United States when it comes to Internet measurements because their networks are new by comparison. Meanwhile, the Trump administration and rivals in the Democratic Party have competing plans for improving U.S. Internet service.
Amid all that, BroadbandNow just released a study ranking the 50 states for Internet coverage and data speed. The study also considered the availability of low-cost service, defined as monthly plans costing $60 or less.
Missouri ranked 32nd.
Fast Internet is accessible to 77.3 percent of the Show-Me State, while low-priced plans are available to 55.2 percent of the state. Missouri's "average speed test" clocked in at 108.4 megabits per second.
It could be worse: Alaska ranked lowest overall, with no low-priced (wired) plan availability and 61 percent wired and fixed wireless broadband coverage.
The Internet alpha dog is New Jersey, which scored highest overall in the BroadbandNow study. The Garden State has 98 percent wired broadband coverage and 78 percent low-priced plan availability.
'A Prerequisite for Participation'
Cooper told the News-Leader that the idea was to take a "practical look" at Internet quality in Missouri and around the country, for at least two reasons.The first? It's not 1994 anymore: Internet access is a necessity, not an extra.
"One thing we harp on a lot at BroadbandNow is that access to broadband is not a luxury," Cooper said Friday during a phone call from Dallas, Texas. "It's almost a prerequisite for participation in the areas of society that we all take for granted."
When paying bills, completing schoolwork and finding a job, the Internet forms a link —or a barrier — between the individual and success at every turn, Cooper said.
"When we're talking about keeping pace with the rest of the world, introducing gigabit service, we're really just talking about keeping up with the pace of progress in society," he said.
The second reason for the new ranking is because BroadbandNow sees itself as having a role in reporting the reality of Internet service, a point of view not necessarily available from the government, Cooper said.
Currently, the way the federal government assesses Internet access and quality is "flawed," in Cooper's view.
An earlier study by his organization shows that the Federal Communications Commission overcounts parts of the country served by fast modern Internet by as much as 50 percent.
Why? It has to do with pesky inconsistencies in federal data collection, Cooper said. Internet service providers (commonly known as ISPs) are supposed to file a report twice a year with the feds to quantify where they offer service, and where they don't.
"They're supposed to — some do, some don't," Cooper said.
The basis of that ISP coverage data is the census block. Smaller than census tracts, census blocks are the tiniest geographic areas counted by the U.S. Census Bureau, and they vary widely in size and concentration.
In Boston, a census block could be just that: a mere city block. Around Branson, it could be much more spread out.
But the feds count a block as "covered" by fast Internet service if an ISP reaches just one address inside the territory with up-to-date access and speed, Cooper said.
The implications for smaller cities like Springfield and "super-rural areas" (Cooper's words) in the rest of southern Missouri include places deemed "covered" by the government, but where home-based entrepreneurs or school kids trying to do homework are locked out.
The State of the Internet in Missouri
BroadbandNow generated its state-level rankings by crunching city-level data, Cooper said. According to the publication:Springfield is the 70th-most connected city in Missouri, despite being the third-largest by population.
What could help the region?
Cooper said that Springfield City Utilities' recently announced "utility lease model" plan to offer new high-speed connections using a public-private partnership with CenturyLink is likely to be a good step forward.
"There needs to be a real partnership between public and private interests in order to get this municipal rocket ship off the ground, so to speak," Cooper said.
That may include literal rocket ships, at least in the case of one emerging technology: low-earth-orbit satellites.
Several corporations, including Amazon and SpaceX, are trying to set up arrays or so-called "megaconstellations" of satellites that would eventually blanket the entire Earth with Internet services.
SpaceX has launched 240 satellites so far and says it could offer Internet service to more places, more cheaply than current technologies, according to a February report from Bloomberg News. One SpaceX official says it could start happening as soon as this summer, though Cooper cautioned against overly ambitious predictions from tech entrepreneurs.
"Again, I need to stress that this service isn't available yet," Cooper said.
But he said that low-earth-orbit satellites could turn out to be a pathway toward fast modern Internet for "super-rural areas."
©2020 Columbia Daily Tribune, Mo. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
