NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Ken Franks knows a life with unreliable internet to the point it irritates him every day.
So much so, he couldn't Zoom NewsChannel 5 for his interview about what it was like to live without broadband internet. He had to take a phone call instead because he still only has DSL in rural Bedford County.
"It sucks. It's as slow as molasses on a January day," he said.
However, Franks is far from alone in Tennessee. In fact, nearly 450,000 residents in the tri-star state don't have adequate broadband, according to the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development. The office has been tracking the data for years and will roll out its own map in the fall of where Tennesseans lack access to high-speed internet of at least 100 megabits downstream and 20 megabits upstream.
This measurement is new for the department, so new that the Federal Communication Commission doesn't have that measurement on their own maps, which they believe will show up in the next iteration of data in late 2022 to early 2023.
In late 2023, Franks said United Communication will be out his way with a line that will connect him to broadband, but providers are suffering the same as others when it comes to inflation and the supply chain.
"I can’t get too excited. I may not live that long. I am 78. I hope live to see that. I look across my fence and my neighbors have fiber optic. I would like to download a file in 2022 without it timing out on me in 2022."
How we got here
While nearly half a million of the 6.9 million in the state of Tennessee are without internet, it's a better figure than it was years ago.
In 2018, that number was around 800,000, according to FCC data from that time.
Previous presidential administrations had taken a stab at the digital divide — particularly in states with swaths of rural areas — but Gov. Bill Haslam's efforts changed Tennessee's direction. In 2018, he pushed the legislature to allow electric cooperatives and internet companies to team up to provide service. Of the 22 electric cooperatives in Tennessee, 17 have chosen to participate in the initiative.
"We make it akin to electricity in the rural areas in the 1930s with the Rural Electrification Act, which allowed the founding of cooperatives," said Keith Carnahan, CEO of Meriwether Lewis Electric Co-operative and MLConnect. "We akin broadband to that. That’s why cooperatives have been so good to face this challenge."
Before the legislature's passage or effort to dole out grant money for spools of broadband cable, Carnahan found himself in rural Humphreys County without phone service or internet.
"I had to go into town just to make a phone call," he said. "I know from experience it can be life-changing."
His cooperative now has 11,400 customers hooked up with 2,500 on the waitlist.
"It’s a good problem to have, and we are in the operational mode side of this now versus the construction side," he said.
While west of Hickman County on the FCC map looks like an internet desert, Carnahan said efforts in the last year have brought the 30% number nearly to zero.
"It’s awesome," he said. "We were very fortunate when the pandemic hit we were in the middle of building out, and we ramped that up in several areas. We were able to take some grant money from the state and we got a grant and we built out a portion of Hickman County. It’s been an awesome feeling, knowing that we are able to close that divide. Now, Centerville to New York City can have the same internet."
Where the future of broadband is going
In the beginning of October, FCC commissioner Brendan Carr visited Tennessee with Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Brentwood, to get an idea of how the state was doing with its connectivity.
"A big part of our focus is broadband, closing the digital divide," Blackburn said from the Old Supreme Court Chambers in Nashville. "In Tennessee, we have so many broadband providers that have made it their focus that everyone in their service area is connected. Grants are there at the state level that providers can couple with the federal level."
Blackburn and Carr sat down with providers and heard how they were using their grant dollars and to hear how close they were to erasing any internet deserts.
"There's no better way to do my job than spend as little time in Washington, D.C., as possible," Carr said with a laugh. "The reality is the federal government has provided a lot of funding but the administration isn't as coordinated as I would like. We are trying to pick up the gaps in the approach that are left. We have heard about challenges, such as supply chains and inflation."
Those are real to William Bradford, president and CEO of United Communications.
"These projects take a long time," Bradford said. "We are seeing from the time we start a project to finishing it that inflation is creeping up 20 to 30% nowadays considering the materials we are buying, the contract labor we are bringing in and just the process of attaching poles and getting them ready. Everything across the board, we are paying a surcharge including fuel. There are quite a few rural broadband programs that are rolling out opportunities to help those impacts. The FCC wants to make sure the service is getting to the constituents."
A handful of weeks ago in September, Gov. Bill Lee — who suffered without internet himself at his Fernvale home for a spell — announced there would be $198 million more in grant money for broadband. Middle Tennessee and Duck River Electric were the largest recipients of those funds. The money comes from the American Rescue Plan, which totals up to $446 million through the Tennessee Emergency Broadband Fund.
"It's so awesome to see the initiative for every Tennessean to have access to broadband," Bradford said. "The project is sizeable and will take hundreds of millions of dollars of infrastructure to solve it. We knew it would take decades to solve, but we can solve this in five or six years with the way the state is wanting to solve it. We are excited. It really is an hourly occurrence our members call you daily for any help possible, you want to step up and find a solution."
Where the $198 million awarded this fall is going:
- $8,631,244, Appalachian Electric Cooperative/Trilight
- $13,134,933, Chickasaw Electric Cooperative
- $17,500,000, Cumberland Electric Membership Corporation
- $8,899,590, Fayetteville Public Utilities
- $2,071,780, Gibson Electric Membership Corporation
- $53,362,147, Middle Tennessee Electric/United Communications
- $4,500,000, Meriwether Lewis Electric Cooperative
- $13,128,551, Powell Valley Electric Cooperative/Scott County Telephone
- $19,184,039, Southwest Tennessee Electric Membership Corporation/Aeneas
- $21,847,496, Tennessee Valley Electric Cooperative
- $15,397,511, Volunteer Energy Cooperative
- $20,168,743, Bolivar Energy Authority/Aeneas
