Approximately 23.4 percent or 88,142 residents in the Wabash Heartland Innovation Network (WHIN)’s 10-county region (Benton, Carroll, Cass, Clinton, Fountain, Montgomery, Pulaski, Tippecanoe, Warren and White counties) lack access to residential broadband service, according to WHIN’s State of Broadband report released Tuesday.
According to Purdue Center for Regional Development (PCRD) Assistant Director and Purdue Extension Community & Regional Economics Specialist Roberto Gallardo, Ph.D. who spearheaded the report, households in the region would have saved $27 million if all unserved homes had access and subscribed to broadband service.
Data for the report was obtained from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Form 477 (December 2016) and the 2012-2016 American Community Survey. The analysis included only those providers that met the minimum 25/3 (25 Megabits per second (Mbps) download and 3 Mbps upload) broadband threshold established by the FCC (25/3 for short).
“Our research shows that 33,881 estimated households in the Wabash Heartland region are without access to 25/3. If they had it and subscribed, potential one-year savings would be possible for Benton ($2.43 million), Carroll ($2.42 million), Cass ($3.31 million), Clinton ($3.01 million), Fountain ($1.40 million), Montgomery ($4.42 million), Pulaski ($1.99 million), Tippecanoe ($5.12 million), Warren ($1.77 million), and White ($1.25 million), totaling $27.16 million,” Gallardo said.
The report also showed low adoption and lack of density are issues needing to be addressed for the region.
“Approximately one-third of WHIN residents live in neighborhoods with low subscription rates, with less than 10 percent residing in areas with high subscription rates. Of the 10 counties in the region, our research shows Benton, Pulaski and Warren counties having 100 percent of their populations living in low adoption neighborhoods, with Benton County leading the way with the highest share lacking of 89.5 percent.
“Only Tippecanoe County has a population percentage in the high adoption rate of 5.3 percent, equating to 9,736 of the County’s 21,742 residents,” Gallardo explained.
Totals for the entire 10-county region are 125,794 residents with 32.8 percent in the low adoption rate and 2.5 percent (Tippecanoe County) in the high adoption rate. Approximately 46.8 percent of the region has access to one to two broadband providers advertising at 25/3 speeds.
“While lack of density is an issue when building broadband, there are high density areas not served by residential 25/3,” Gallardo said. “Clearly, other factors are at play, such as right-of-way fees or topological (detailed descriptions on a map of the natural and artificial features of an area) barriers limiting access to 25/3.”
Businesses in the WHIN region were serviced primarily by fixed wireless, with just under one quarter of them outside the business broadband footprint.
The report, designed to increase awareness of the state of broadband availability in the Wabash Heartland region also is intended to serve as a catalyst for broadband discussions and ways to address identified use and service gaps.
The cost of broadband service is not an available data point, a key factor that can contribute to or impede broadband adoption.
The report was done in partnership between the Purdue Center for Regional Development, WHIN and Purdue Extension.
About the Wabash Heartland Innovation Network
Funded by a $38.9 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc., WHIN serves 10 counties in North Central Indiana to develop the Wabash Heartland region into the global epicenter for digital agriculture and next-generation manufacturing empowered by smart Internet of Things (IoT) platforms. WHIN’s three-pronged approach involves digital agriculture (engaging agriculture producers and businesses in the development of agriculture IoT testbeds, career-ready certificates and digital-readiness training), next-generation manufacturing (real-time analytics of manufacturing systems, workforce education and manufacturing IoT testbeds) and regional cultivation to increase the education, vitality and connectivity of the region.
Nearly 350,000 individuals call the region home that includes Benton, Carroll, Cass, Clinton, Fountain, Montgomery, Pulaski, Tippecanoe, Warren and White Counties. In addition, the region boasts 28 school corporations, an Ivy Tech Community College system, a private college (Wabash College) and an internationally-renowned, Tier I public research university (Purdue University) which serves as the center of innovation in engineering, agriculture, technology and entrepreneurship. WHIN’s guiding values are to be industry-led and regionally-focused to empower globally competitive businesses to plant and grow in the Wabash Heartland for the benefit of the region, Indiana and the Midwest. For more information: www.whinsmartregion.org