Broadband internet was featured during this week’s State of the State address by Governor Kay Ivey. Observers are wondering what form this will take. The state may reportedly rely on Starlink satellites in low income areas later this year. That came up during a ZOOM briefing with the University of Alabama. Reed Sharkey is with the Benton Institute that studies broadband. He says Starlink instead of fiber technology may mean slower service.
“Speed that Starlink can offer versus the speed of a fiber network is generally going to be much there's going to be a much lower cap that that network can provide. So I can add as to that,” said Sharkey.
Governor Ivey noted one study that says Alabama is ranked twenty fourth in the nation for broadband. That’s an improvement over 2019 where the state was number forty seven. Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite system can occasionally be seen soaring overhead in the night time sky, looking like a procession of stars sailing overhead. Impoverished counties that may be getting their internet coverage from this satellite system reportedly include Wilcox, Marengo, Perry, Sumter, and Greene.
Delivering more internet service nationally was a goal of the Biden administration and the debate on fiber versus satellites came up. Last month, the Wall Street Journal wrote…
“Fiber projects were also given heavy preference over satellite and fixed wireless services, even though the latter could be installed faster and at a fraction of the cost. These requirements delayed projects, raised costs, and added uncertainty across the industry.
Enter the Trump team, led by assistant Commerce secretary Arielle Roth, which removed nearly all of the Biden mandates and prioritized projects in which private operators put up more capital so they would have more skin in the game. Ms. Roth said this month the Administration’s deregulation is on track to save taxpayers $21 billion.
The average cost for each new household or business connected in Louisiana fell to $3,943 from $5,245. Louisiana’s most expensive project had run at $120,000 per connection under the Biden rules—almost as much as a starter home—but the Trump team brought the cost down to $7,547 per connection. Similar savings have occurred in other states," the paper stated.
Critics of slower internet speeds for lower income regions of the nation point to the possibility of less access to benefits like telehealth visits. During the University of Alabama ZOOM briefing on bring broadband to the state, Reed Sharkey of the Benton Institute, noted the issue for internet users, particularly in lower income regions of the state was speed.
“In all fairness to low Earth orbit satellite to lot better, at a lot better speeds than you're using it did back in the day. But, you know, still, still not, still not the level that fiber can deliver if we're talking about speeds,” he said.
