<< Back 10/16/02 Leaders disappointed RIAA request ignored SMN The availability and cost of high-speed Internet access is frustrating a group of regional officials, especially after a similar coalition in the eastern part of the state was recently awarded a $3 million grant. Representatives of the Western North Carolina Knowledge Coalition and the Education and Research Consortium (ERC) of the Western Carolinas gathered earlier this month in Asheville to discuss the progress of their joint plans to develop a non-profit alternative middle-mile fiber optic network. They also discussed their frustration with funding requests — made under an initiative called Appalachian Access — to the North Carolina Rural Internet Access Authority (RIAA). Rural eastern North Carolina leaders uncovered the same problem associated with access to telecommunication services and arrived at the same conclusion as WNC leaders. They are also developing a non-profit regional middle-mile fiber optic network for the benefit of the citizens of their region. The eastern group — called APEC — and Appalachian Access both applied for a similar grant form the RIAA. APEC received $3 million of the $30 million available, while the WNC group received nothing. “We are thrilled that our sister project in the East was awarded almost $3 million,” said Bill Gibson, executive director of the Southwestern Commission in Bryson City. “However, now we are left wondering why funding for the corresponding project in the West is being held up.” The group’s primary goal is the development of affordable access to the highest speed telecommunications services for WNC’s rural areas. Forming a coalition of users would lower the price for all users. Connectivity is available now, but users pay extremely high prices for it. The problem is not in the “last mile” from the Internet provider to the home or business. The issue is the “middle mile,” the price charged by BellSouth and Verizon for information to and from regional hubs. “Issues of cost, capacity and quality of service are literally crippling the region — making it virtually impossible to compete in the global economy,” said Dr. Cecil Groves, president of Southwestern Community College, a founder of Appalachian Access, and a member of the RIAA. In 1997, members of Knowledge Coalition — a grassroots partnership of over 100 representatives from health care, businesses, non-profits, education, and government entities — joined forces to help prepare the region to prosper in a knowledge-based economy. “The first order of business, however, was to address the serious telecommunications infrastructure problem,” said Jack Cecil, President of Biltmore Farms and Co-Chair of the Knowledge Coalition. So, in 1999, the Knowledge Coalition launched the Appalachian Access initiative. In 2001, the ERC of the Western Carolinas joined the Knowledge Coalition by adopting the Appalachian Access strategy. Leonard Winchester, the technology coordinator for Swain County schools, said that the rural areas of state will never catch up technology-wise unless it gets some help. “We will always be 10 years behind from an economic development standpoint,” he said. Winchester used the example of Swain and Buncombe counties. In WNC’s most populous county, the local cable provider recently agreed to provide cable modems to every school and every classroom free of charge as part of its cable franchise contract. In Swain, Winchester said the cable provider does not even provide Internet service. So for 10 times more students than are in Swain, Buncombe gets free Internet service. “Their price just went to zero. We pay $1,100 a month to Dnet, $667 a month to Verizon, and $3,000 a month for our fiber network. Compare that to Buncombe and you have a great example of the problem facing rural areas,” said Winchester. That cost is the primary rural Internet problem, say officials. Consider, for example, that a business in Greensboro North Carolina pays less than $250 per month for high-speed service while its Western North Carolina counterpart in Murphy pays almost 10 times that amount (according to a study prepared by the North Carolina Department of Commerce). John Kevlin and Shane Burrell, owners of Metrostat Technologies in Sylva, say that study may not have been comparing apples to apples. They say WNC does not have a “middle mile” problem that can’t be solved by the private sector. “Right now we provide competitive prices, one hop away from the backbone, right here in Sylva,” said Kevlin. They say that many of these problems have been solved in Sylva and Jackson County, and that government funding to a nonprofit high-speed provider will take the large users — schools, universities, hospitals — out of the market for private sector providers. “Once that money for subsidies is gone, do you have a real system in place?” asked Burrell. Winchester, though, said waiting for the private sector simply is not an option for counties like Swain. “There’s not a chance we will get what we need from private companies until we are 10 years behind,” said Winchester. Despite the delay in getting funds, members of Appalachian Access have vowed to keep their group together and continue seeking funds to build the middle mile network.