The outgoing Michigan goobernerd has finally noticed a broadband access problem in Michigan. The Detroit News is reporting that Snyder announced a plan to make universal access to high-speed internet available throughout Michigan. (rb- Just like safe drinking water in Flint?) Snyder’s office says the Michigan Consortium of Advanced Networks (MCAN) sets the path for improving access and adoption of broadband.
Synder’s minions say that Michigan currently ranks 30th in the nation for broadband availability. More than 350,000 households – mostly in rural areas – lack access to high-speed internet service. Another two million households only have access to a single, terrestrial internet service provider.
Their meaningless election year recommendations include calling for greater investment in broadband to improve the community and economic development. They are also promoting and building awareness for low-cost broadband subscription programs.
Among the groups involved in this election year boondoggle is a who’s who of soft-money PAC contributing network neutrality haters:
As proof these groups have failed to make broadband available to the citizens of Detroit, CircleiD.com points us to the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) report. The NDIA found that Detroit is the second-worst connected city in the U.S. NDIA ranked all 185 U.S. cities with 50,000 households by the total percentage of each city’s households lacking fixed broadband internet subscriptions.
The study used data from the 2016 American Community Survey (ACS), released by the U.S. Census Bureau. NDIA notes, “The term ‘Fixed broadband Internet’ as used by the Census includes wireline broadband technologies (cable Internet, DSL, fiber to the premises) as well as satellite and ‘fixed wireless’ technologies … It does not include 3G and 4G mobile services such as one purchases for a smartphone, or non-broadband connections like dial-up modems.”
NDIA says this data is not an indication of the availability of home broadband service, but rather of the extent to which households are actually connected to it. NDIA focused on fixed broadband subscriptions in this comparison of household connection rates, because the strict data caps common to mobile Internet services make mobile much less useful for general household Internet access.
Other Michigan communities in the study included Warren which ranked 86th nationally with 56.7% of households disconnected and Grand Rapids which came in at 107 nationally with 29.4% of its households off the net.
Worst Connected Cities
| City, State | Worst-Connected Rank | Total households | Number of households without fixed broadband | Percent of households without fixed broadband |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brownsville, Texas | 1 | 50,289 | 33,711 | 67.0% |
| Detroit, Michigan | 2 | 259,295 | 147,067 | 56.7% |
| Hialeah, Florida | 3 | 75,222 | 42,258 | 56.2% |
| Shreveport, Louisiana | 4 | 75,509 | 38,200 | 50.6% |
| Memphis, Tennessee | 5 | 256,973 | 126,428 | 49.2% |
| Cleveland, Ohio | 6 | 168,306 | 81,757 | 48.6% |
| Laredo, Texas | 7 | 69,849 | 33,077 | 47.4% |
| Miami, Florida | 8 | 172,748 | 81,424 | 47.1% |
| Jackson, Mississippi | 9 | 64,929 | 30,351 | 46.7% |
| Topeka, Kansas | 10 | 51,471 | 23,775 | 46.2% |
| Newark, New Jersey | 11 | 99,576 | 45,896 | 46.1% |
| Syracuse, New York | 12 | 56,295 | 25,571 | 45.4% |
| Mobile, Alabama | 13 | 79,188 | 35,906 | 45.3% |
| Chattanooga, Tennessee | 14 | 72,349 | 32,073 | 44.3% |
| Dayton, Ohio | 15 | 58,722 | 25,988 | 44.3% |
| Birmingham, Alabama | 16 | 90,117 | 39,707 | 44.1% |
| Springfield, Missouri | 17 | 74,126 | 32,499 | 43.8% |
| Akron, Ohio | 18 | 83,071 | 35,736 | 43.0% |
| Rochester, New York | 19 | 84,688 | 36,364 | 42.9% |
rb-
I get so irritated by these political games. Followers of the Bach Seat know that I have been involved with projects that have provided real high-speed Internet access to some of the poorest communities in Michigan. That is despite the efforts of many of these same players.
Am I the only grumpy guy that remembers of other doomed efforts? Link Michigan? Wireless Genesee? Wireless Oakland?
Election year politics.
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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.
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