By OLIVIA BERGMEIER
Lead Reporter - Salina Post
In the early 1900s, electricity swept across the country, bringing light bulbs, telecommunications and other luxuries to high-end homes and businesses — today, electricity is in almost every building, even public restrooms at local parks.
What was once considered a luxury became a household necessity by the mid-1900s, and by the end of the 20th century, many office workers began using the internet for daily job functions.
Most employers, schools and government organizations expect residents to have access to the internet, but a recent Saline County broadband survey found that many in the rural areas of the county don't have reliable access to internet services.
"Fiber really is the end goal for really, every house and business in America. I like to say fiber future-proofs the community," said Jack Maytum, a senior broadband analyst at Design Nine, Inc. "A lot of providers would have you think that that's wishful thinking, but think about electricity in the 1920s and 30s. Electricity was considered a luxury, now it's a necessity. Virtually every structure in the country has electricity, so why not fiber?"
Fiber optic cable allows high-capacity telecommunications to travel at high speeds, including multiple types of internet, cable television and phone services.
Unlike copper or other metal cables, glass threads carry pulses of light rather than electricity to transmit different types of information. Maytum informed the forum attendees that due to fiber optic's unique design, it has enough capacity to last for decades.
"One of the things we get asked a lot is, 'Well, isn't there going to be something better than fiber?' and we don't think there is going to be," said Andrew Cohill, the president of Design Nine. "The wonderful thing about fiber is you can expand the capacity of fiber by changing the equipment on each end of the fiber cable."
Throughout the last week of June, Saline County staff hosted multiple broadband forums targeted at different parts of the Saline County community, with one focusing on its residents on Tuesday, June 25, at the Salina Public Library Technology Center.
Design Nine presented a preliminary survey data analysis to forum attendees and answered questions about the broadband survey.
READ MORE: Saline County — Call to action Broadband Community Assessment
About a dozen Saline County residents and representatives visited the forum and shared their biggest challenges with internet access.
Saline County Public Information Officer Melissa McCoy began the community forum with some brief information about the Community Broadband Assessment before turning to Maytum and Cohill from Design Nine.
Cohill asked each attendee to share their names, their general location in Saline County and what internet provider they used in the home.
Most attendees either had poor access to reliable internet or were concerned about those in the community with limited access.
Tim Unruh, a local freelance journalist, and his wife use an internet hotspot service through their phone company for the two small businesses they operate from their home, but it regularly fails them when attempting normal business operations.
"My wife is a travel nurse and we both run teeny tiny small businesses out of our home and we live in this black hole, and we've tried. We've had companies come out and they said, 'Sure, we'll do that if you put up a $10,000 tower outside of your home," Unruh said. "For us, it's not a toy. I'm sure we may stream a show or something, but it's not about that. It's, we really need it. It's essential."
Unruh said that once he uses up the data provided with his phone plan each month, he has to work from coffee shops or other public locations with internet access.
Other residents shared similar stories, with one commenting on how an internet service said she had too many trees surrounding her house, preventing the signal from reaching her rural property.
Internet providers in rural areas
A common question that many of the attendees asked was, "Why do some places have good access while others don't?" which Maytum said it usually has to do with making the most cash in more populated areas.
Recently, the federal government granted Kansas $451 million to spread throughout rural areas of the state to help improve high-speed broadband access to more Kansas residents.
"Unfortunately, because you happen to be in a rural area, a lot of the big providers are going to take that money and invest it in more fast-growing areas, large cities, not so much in Saline County," Maytum said. "Local providers tend to stay local, but the big companies will take that money oftentimes and go into places unless they are subsidized by somebody's federal government or state government."
Maytum and Cohill agreed that this was a driving factor for why many national internet providers have not moved into rural areas. The Design Nine team showed preliminary survey results that reflected this with the distribution of internet access across the county.
One of the benefits Maytum shared about providing reliable broadband access is that it kept young residents in a community, providing the area with new young workers for further economic development.
The Design Nine assessment found that broadband providers could generate more than $475 million in revenue over 30 years by investing in Saline County.
With that information, alongside the data found by the community survey, Maytum and Cohill said it can help attract further broadband infrastructure development.
A map showed that many residents in the cities of Salina and Gypsum had access to the internet with fast download speeds, while other parts of the county showed limited or no access to internet providers.
Local Salina leaders, such as Saline County Administrator Phil Smith-Hanes, K-State Research and Extension Salina District Director Cade Rensink and Salina City Mayor Bill Longbine, attended the forum.
Saline County residents can take the survey by visiting the Saline County website. El personal del Condado de Saline también incluyó una versión en español de la encuesta de Evaluación de Banda Ancha Comunitaria.