City officials and people in the business community convened Monday to discuss improving Internet access for rural residents.
Danville Utilities serves an area of about 500 miles, but outside the city “you’re lucky to have anything faster than dial-up,” Joe King, assistant city manager for utilities, said at the meeting held at the Institute for Advanced Learning & Research.
The question, he said, is how do we get that service to the rural areas?
Officials said residents without access to high-speed Internet are at a disadvantage for a number of reasons: students lack access to research and homework help and businesses are at a competitive disadvantage if they don’t have fast connections.
Robert Woltz, a representative from Verizon Wireless, offered a business perspective on providing access.
“The best incentive to invest is an expectation of return,” he said.
Woltz pointed out that while 70-75 percent of houses in Virginia are wired for broadband, only 25 percent of those are paying for the service. A successful business model requires returns, so they key is finding the right balance, he said.
Members of the panel offered a number of recommendations that combine local, business and state-level factors to improve existing arrangements.
In Danville itself, the city and private companies work in cooperation: the city builds the networks that companies can plug into and the companies provide the services to residents. The two entities also have a revenue-sharing agreement.
At the state level, King said the Legislature promotes broadband deployment through education; facilitates information sharing between providers and contractors; and encourages infrastructure sharing.
The main obstacle at the state lever, however, will be funding for more broadband access especially in such uncertain economic times.
“The money situation is going to be tight,” Delegate Don Merricks, R-Pittsylvania County, said of the state’s budget next year. Lawmakers are looking to cut up to $4 billion in spending.
Contact Sarah Arkin at sarkin@registerbee.com or (434) 791-7983.
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