State wants high-speed Internet available everywhere in Alabama

Mel Grimes jokes that he has time to brew and drink a cup of coffee while waiting for his computer to download anything from the Internet.

Lake many rural Alabamians, Grimes does not have access to high-speed Internet service at his home in Waterloo. He said using a dial-up Internet connection is frustratingly slow.

"It seems like it takes forever just to connect to the Internet," the Waterloo resident said. "It chokes the life out of your day when you are on a dial-up system."

He is elated Gov. Bob Riley has launched an initiative to make high-speed Internet service available to all Alabamians. That initiative will especially apply to small towns such as Waterloo and rural communities such as Center Hill, where someone used spray paint to write on a telephone junction box: "We want DSL" to express their frustration with having to use slow-speed dial-up connections to access the World Wide Web.

Todd Isbell, whose family operates farms in Colbert and Lauderdale counties, uses computers extensively, including at a farm in Cherokee that has a computer-controlled irrigation system.

When Isbell needs to write a program for the irrigation system that requires downloading large files from the Internet, he must travel to the farming operation's office in Muscle Shoals. He said the dial-up Internet service available in Cherokee is too slow to create the programs. The Isbells use a cellular telephone-based Internet service at their Cherokee farm, and while faster than conventional phone lines, it is still too slow for sending and receiving large computer files.

Isbell said it would be helpful to be able to write the computer programs while at the farm in Cherokee without having to travel to the office in Muscle Shoals.

Jeff Helms, a spokesman for the Montgomery-based Alabama Farmers Federation, said farmers throughout the state are stymied by the lack of high-speed Internet service. Helms said farmers need high-speed service to stay abreast of the markets for farm products, weather reports and the latest innovations for agriculture and for communicating with customers and other farmers.

Kathy Johnson, director of the Alabama Broadband Initiative, said work is already under way to develop a map that would show what areas of Alabama lack access to broadband Internet service, which operates much faster than systems that use a conventional telephone connection.

She said that because numerous companies provide high-speed Internet service in Alabama, no one knows exactly which areas have the service and which don't. Once the map is completed, the state will make it available to Internet providers and encourage them to expand their service. A teleconference is scheduled for Jan. 29 between state officials and Internet service providers to discuss the need for expanding high-speed Internet.

Riley contends access to high-speed Internet service will allow businesses in areas now served by dial-up service to grow and allow residents of those communities to better utilize the Web.

"Although broadband on its own is not a silver bullet for prosperity, adequate broadband access is an enabler for economic development and for enhancing the lives of our citizens," Riley said in a press release. "We started the Alabama Broadband Initiative to make sure small towns and rural communities don't get left behind.

"Rural communities offer so much in quality of life and have so much potential. But without sufficient access to broadband, these communities and their residents will remain technologically isolated, and thus, disadvantaged."

Grimes, a Waterloo town councilman, said access to high-speed Internet service could help the community attract new businesses and a physician for its clinic as well as attracting new residents who work from their homes.

Johnson said physicians who serve rural communities around the state use the Internet to help them diagnose patients without requiring the patient to drive into town to see them. The rural clinics are staffed with nurses and other medical professionals but the doctor is typically located in a larger town several miles away.

She said emergency agencies also could benefit from high-speed Internet to send and receive information while responding to emergencies in rural areas.

She said high-speed Internet is also useful to rural schools and libraries, making it much quicker to conduct research on the Internet.

Johnson said the 34-member advisory committee Riley appointed to oversee the broadband initiative will look at all methods for providing high-speed Internet connections, including cable television, cellular telephone and electrical power providers, fiber optic cables and wire-based telephone companies that offer DSL service.

She said power lines can be used to provide a fast Internet service.

Once the areas in need of high-speed service are identified, the state will begin an effort to educate residents of those communities about the advantages of the service. Johnson said there must be enough people in a community willing to use the service to make it attractive for an Internet provider to offer high-speed connections.

Grimes said finding enough people in Waterloo should not be a problem. He said more than 3,000 people who live in the Waterloo area or make frequent visits there have signed a petition asking that broadband Internet and cellular telephone be offered.

"People out in rural areas deserve the same opportunities to utilize 21st-century technology as those who live in big cities," Grimes said. "We pay taxes and we're part of America just like the people in the big cities."

Johnson said a possible side benefit of the broadband initiative will be expanding cellular telephone service into rural areas around the state. Grimes has worked for more than three years to attract a cellular company to locate a tower in the Waterloo area.

"Eliminating underserved and unserved areas in our state will provide greater opportunities and benefits to all citizens of Alabama," Riley said in the news release.

Dennis Sherer can be reached at 740-5746 or dennis,sherer@TimesDaily.com.