Many residents who live in the less populated communities don't have adequate access to high-speed Internet services. Gov. Tom Wolf launched an initiative this year that aims to help expand broadband access to businesses and households throughout Pennsylvania.
“High-speed Internet access is essential to growing our economy, expanding educational opportunities for our children, increasing access to modern health care, and improving the safety of our communities,” Wolf said in a statement. “For Pennsylvania to succeed we must close the digital divide ensuring every citizen and business has the access it needs to connect to the ever-expanding digital world in which we live and work.”
Areas of the county that have limited or no broadband access — defined as a "point of entry into the Internet via a service provider or mobile carrier" — include portions of the Penns Valley, Bald Eagle Valley and Mountaintop regions, according to data from the Centre County Planning Office.
In urbanized areas of the county, 9 out of 10 residents are in a broadband Internet service area, while just 3 out of 10 residents in rural areas are in a service area. Of the roughly 162,000 county residents, about 136,000 have broadband Internet and 26,000 do not, according to the planning office.
"Centre County is slightly better off in terms of broadband Internet services provided to residents and businesses, but there is vast room for improvement," senior planner Liz Lose said. "With the selection of technologies, Internet service providers and dedicated leaders, we have the capacity to resolve broadband Internet issues in rural areas — it is finding the right funding formula and partnership model."
Wolf's Pennsylvania Broadband Incentive Program will offer $35 million in incentives to telecommunications companies in an effort to encourage them to expand their Internet service to underserved or unserved areas throughout the state.
The Federal Communications Commission has determined census blocks in the state that are up for bid in its upcoming Connect American Fund Phase II Auction, which begins on July 24. The auction will award up to $1.98 billion of universal service support over 10 years to areas currently unserved by broadband, according to the FCC.
However, it doesn't guarantee that all areas included in the auction will get expanded service. It's really up to the providers.
Wolf said he is hoping to make high-speed Internet available to every Pennsylvanian by 2022.
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., said that there needs to be a "massive infusion of dollars" into infrastructure for rural broadband.
"When you go across Pennsylvania, it's hundreds of thousands of people just in rural counties ... that have no high-speed Internet," Casey said. "Kids can't learn in school, they can't do their homework, small businesses can't grow."
He said all levels of government are working toward solving the problem, but "we haven't really advanced as much as we need to."
"It should be a national goal, just like electricity was a couple generations ago," Casey said.
©2018 the Centre Daily Times (State College, Pa.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
