Obama, Branstad push plans to increase high-speed Internet
EDITOR'S NOTE: An earlier version of this story contained incorrect information about Gov. Terry Branstad's proposed property-tax exemption.
The White House and Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad unveiled separate plans Tuesday that would achieve the same result: providing greater access to high-speed Internet.
President Barack Obama heads to Cedar Falls on Wednesday to promote programs that would spur competition so that businesses will provide low-cost broadband access to more Americans. Cedar Falls is Iowa's first gigabit Internet city, providing what is considered the gold standard of broadband service.
The president's trip comes one day after Branstad told legislators that he is making it a priority to connect more Iowans, particularly in rural areas, to broadband service.
Branstad asked the Legislature on Tuesday to approve a $5 million grant program that would provide money to telecommunications firms that build or provide more broadband access to rural areas, schools and under-served communities. A similar attempt last year to increase broadband service failed in the state House.
"The fabric of our state is woven together by the gravel roads and the interstate system, but in this day and age it also must be connected through access to broadband as well," Branstad told legislators in his Condition of the State speech Tuesday.
Iowa rural access lags
Branstad has said increased Internet access is necessary so farmers can connect their machinery to the Web while they work in the field.
About 70 percent of rural Iowa households use broadband Internet, compared with about 76 percent of Iowans statewide, according to Connect Iowa, a nonprofit that works with state officials on improving Internet access.
Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey, a Republican, said he's heard mixed reports from farmers about Internet access. Even so, more farmers are relying on uninterrupted Internet access to manage their land more efficiently and in real-time, Northey said.
"I think this is very forward-looking to the next generation of tools that we have on the farm," Northey said. "It's important for us to understand how everyone can use it, not just those with good access."
Branstad's proposal calls for a 100 percent property-tax exemption for any broadband infrastructure put in place on or after July 2014. Similar language in last year's legislation helped derail it.
Senate Majority Leader Michael Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, said the property-tax proposal could be one sticking point this year that would need the input of local governments, which ultimately will have to deal with the costs incurred by the exemption.
Gronstal said he wants to make sure any incentives given to companies push them to build new infrastructure, instead of just giving them money for plans they already had in place.
"I'm looking for an incentive that actually incents, as opposed to giving away state resources," Gronstal said.
Dave Duncan, CEO of the Iowa Communications Alliance, said Branstad's $5 million grant proposal is a 'nice addition' that wasn't in last year's legislation. He said offering different types of incentives is a good way to help different companies invest in broadband infrastructure.
"It's expensive to deploy these networks to sparsely populated areas," Duncan said. "If it were cheap or easy, you would see everyone by connected. Its neither cheap nor easy."
Duncan said he would also like companies that have already built infrastructure in Iowa to get first crack at the incentives before they are offered to outside companies.
Obama broadband plan
In Cedar Falls, Obama will promote a series of programs and coalitions intended to increase broadband access to Americans by spurring competition among Internet providers.
For example, Obama will unveil a U.S. Commerce Department program called Broadband USA, in which federal officials will set up a call line, hold regional workshops and provide technical assistance to cities that want to expand broadband access in their communities.
Obama's visit will coincide, officials said, with the U.S. Department of Agriculture announcing that within a few months it will open applications to a program that provides $40 million to $50 million in loans to rural carriers to build out their broadband infrastructure. Officials said the program is meant to help unserved and under-served rural areas.
The president is also establishing a council that will task a dozen federal agencies with looking at ways they can shed rules that may be inhibiting the spread of high-speed Internet access.
"What we're saying, and what the president will communicate tomorrow, is every American should have options for better, faster broadband," said Jeff Zients, director of the president's National Economic Council, on a conference call Tuesday with reporters.
Zients said Obama's actions will not require action from Congress.
Highlighting cities such as Cedar Falls that have invested in high-speed broadband is part of the reason for Obama's visit, White House officials said.
Cedar Falls Utilities brought gigabit speeds to the city in 2013, making it the first in Iowa with such access. Since then, eight other Iowa cities have achieved gigabit status, and more are in the works.
Speaking with the Register's editorial board Tuesday, Branstad said neither he nor any member of his staff will attend Obama's speech due to tight schedules at the Iowa statehouse.
Pushing for Internet security
Obama has spent much of this week focusing on Internet security and privacy.
For example, the president on Monday pushed legislation that would require businesses to inform consumers within 30 days of a data breach. He also proposed a law that would forbid businesses from selling student data to third parties.
Tuesday, he proposed legislation that would increase communication between the private sector and government after information is hacked.
The discussions are part of Obama's preview of his State of the Union address, which he will give Jan. 20.
Proposals for increased access to broadband and faster Internet speeds are not new for the president or his administration.
Tom Wheeler, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, has called for raising the standard broadband speed to 25 megabits per second. That's up from the current benchmark of 4 Mbps the FCC set more than four years ago.
About 75 percent of Iowa households had access to speeds of at least 25 Mbps as of November, according to Connect Iowa.
Obama's visit also comes about a month after the FCC voted to raise its target for rural broadband to 10 Mbps downloads.
The FCC voted in December to require broadband providers receiving federal funds to provide the faster download speeds. The increase is up from 4 Mbps, which the FCC set in 2011.
The federal agency said the higher speeds are necessary to put rural users on par with the speeds the majority of urban Americans can access.
Broadband adoption in Iowa
Here's a look at how much of Iowa used broadband in 2013:
•76 percent of statewide households
•70 percent of rural households
•51 percent of low-income households
•53 percent of Iowa adults use mobile broadband
Source: Connect Iowa
Internet terms to know
• Bit : A single unit of data. Internet download and upload speeds are measured in bits per second, most commonly kilobits (1,000 bits) and megabits (1,000,000 bits).
• Broadband : The norm for how consumers receive Internet service. Broadband includes data sent by cable lines, fiber lines, local telephone networks or through wireless service. Broadband speeds are usually considered to be higher than 1-megabit-per-second downloads.
• Bandwidth : The amount of data that can be transmitted in a fixed amount of time. Typically, the more bandwidth, the better.
• Dial-up : An older Internet service provided by dialing out over an existing telephone line. Offers slower speeds than broadband.
• Gigabit Internet : A gold-standard for Internet speeds, equating to 1 billion bits per second. Google, for example, advertises that users of its Gigabit Internet service could download a high-definition movie in seven seconds. Downloading 100 songs, the tech giant says, would take three seconds.
Iowa's Internet speeds
•98 percent of households have access to at least 768 kilobit-per-second downloads.
•94 percent have access to at least 3 megabit-per-second downloads.
•81 percent have access to at least 10 Mbps downloads.
•68 percent have access to at least 100 Mbps downloads.
•Less than 3 percent have access to at least 1 gigabit-per-second downloads.
Source: Connect Iowa