MACOG, the Missouri Association of Councils of Government, is a statewide association comprising all 19 of Missouri’s regional planning commissions and councils of governments. MACOG received grants from the U.S. Economic Development Administration and the Missouri Dept. of Economic Development to conduct a statewide broadband study to determine gaps in broadband internet service, viable options for coverage, and estimated deployment costs. MACOG hired Reid Consulting, which has been working to provide a complete analysis of the entire state of Missouri. Now, the data is being presented to Missouri’s Regional Planning Commissions and Councils of Government. Tom Reid of Reid Consulting held a meeting via Zoom on June 14 to present the firm’s findings to the Meramec Regional Planning Commission (MRPC). The MRPC serves the counties of Crawford, Dent, Gasconade, Maries, Osage, Phelps, Pulaski, and Washington.
Reid presented data from over six million speed tests performed at different locations in Missouri. He said the data generated gave a better understanding of the gaps in broadband coverage that exist in many parts of the state.
“(The data) gives us a very strong statistical basis for our coverage assertions,” said Reid.
According to Reid, the FCC maps used to allocate federal grant funding to develop broadband services often rely on the claims of Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) to determine unserved and underserved locations. Meaning, if an ISP claims that they can serve a certain location, the location is excluded from consideration for broadband development funding. The problem, Reid explained, is that ISP’s often claim to be able to provide broadband coverage of a certain speed in a given area, but in reality, the service is not available, or the quality and speed of the service are far below that which was advertised. The area is excluded from development funding because of the ISP’s claim and is left in limbo with subpar or nonexistent broadband service. Reid said there currently are no penalties for an ISP when they falsely claim to be able to serve a location.
Reid said the firm used several methods to get a more realistic understanding of unserved locations across the state, including data collected through more than six million speed tests performed across Missouri, which showed 497,000 unserved locations, versus the claims of ISP’s that only 398,000 unserved locations exist in Missouri.
Before going deeper on the topic, Reid outlined what he said were some common myths used by ISP’s to in an attempt to dismiss or invalidate the testing data. The first claim was that customers don’t want the service. In response, Reid said that 25% to 35% of broadband customers purchased the highest speed service available at their location. Reid said that ISP’s claim bad Wi-Fi invalidates some of the tests due, but Reid said that the testing data shows Wi-Fi signal strength. Another claim said that customers only run the tests when they are experiencing internet problems, but Reid said the study stacked all the tests from a location and looked at the highest speeds.
Reid said that there had been 161,000 challenges issued for locations which ISP’s claimed to serve, but in reality the service or claimed speed was not available for customers. He said around 75% of them were challenges against the claims of Fixed Wireless providers, such as cell phone carriers or other wireless internet services. According to Reid, these types of broadband service are very situation-specific, and are heavily reliant on line-of-sight to get a good signal. Reid showed terrain maps, which showed how rugged terrain and heavy tree cover can cause large gaps in coverage.
“Those signals are not going to go through the ground,” commented Reid.
He said fixed wireless such as cell service is not a viable substitute for modern broadband from a capacity viewpoint, either. Each tower can only handle a certain number of customers at a time, before speeds start to become throttled due to bandwidth capacity.
Reid also spoke about underserved locations. He said many of the underserved locations in the area are served only by DSL lines. Many DSL lines use braided copper cables, which Reid said are often decades old.
Reid likened broadband infrastructure to roads, presenting a hypothetical analogy: What if you stopped maintaining the roads? Reid said the road deteriorates over time before you’re left with a “goat path”.
“We have a 30-year pattern of promising broadband to Rural America, and not actually delivering. (The FCC has spent $100 billion, over 30 years to improve rural infrastructure, and here we are with a digital goat path,” said Reid. Reid said it was vital that public interest groups challenge the FCC maps with accurate information.
“It’s really got to be the planning commissions and counties and port authorities, all these groups that are really focused on the public interest to help give the Missouri Broadband Office cover to determine eligibility in a way that’s more fact based instead of just egregious overstatement of coverage,” said Reid. “Just sustain these efforts. These next three years is going to be really critical to whether the broadband needs of rural residents are met or not.”
Sean O’Malley, also with the firm, gave an overview of the eight counties that the MRPC covers. According to O’Malley, there are 41,500 unserved locations in the region, along with 75,461 underserved locations. O’Malley used GIS mapping, census data, and speed test data to give a picture of the areas within the region that have the worst internet connectivity. Many locations in the region have very limited or no internet access. He said that the unserved locations would take precedence over underserved locations in terms of funding.
“Those areas are definitely areas that need to be served, because they were eligible in a program that really only works in the worst-off areas,” he said.
O’Malley looked at higher and higher available speeds at locations which were still considered by the federal government to be underserved.
“Finally, when we go up to the maximum threshold for federally underserved, below 100/20, you can see that essentially everything, except the areas around populated locations or places where a fiber provider has been deploying, pretty much fills in,” said O’Malley, showing an almost solid red map.
