State lags in fast Internet access

FCC reports 26 percent of Kansas lacks high-speed connections

Topeka ? Despite a suggestion that Kansas lags behind other states in access to high-speed Internet service, legislators appear cautious about intervening in the market.

The Special Committee on Utilities had a hearing Monday on broadband Internet access, which are connections to the ‘Net such as cable, wireless and digital subscriber lines capable of transmitting data at higher speeds than traditional dial-up computer modems.

Legislative leaders appointed the committee to determine whether there were barriers keeping broadband from rural areas and whether the state could eliminate those barriers. However, committee members said they were not sure they needed to pursue any legislative proposals.

“We’re gathering information,” said Rep. Carl Holmes, R-Liberal.

Figures suggesting Kansas lags behind other states came from the Federal Communications Commission, which calculated that 26 percent of the state’s ZIP codes had no broadband service provider at the end of 2002. The FCC figures were presented to the committee by Janet Buchanan, chief of telecommunications for the Kansas Corporation Commission.

Arkansas also had no provider in 26 percent of its ZIP codes, but the figures were 19 percent for Missouri, 15 percent for Oklahoma and 10 percent for Texas. The national figure was 12 percent.

But David Springe, chief attorney for the Citizens’ Utility Ratepayers Board, a state agency representing consumers, said people forgot that urban areas in Kansas lacked broadband access three years ago.

“Obviously, everybody wants to get broadband available across the state,” Springe said.

Rep. Josh Svaty, D-Ellsworth, said he did not trust the FCC’s numbers, adding, “It seems like we’re progressing at the same pace as the states surrounding us.”

Kansas University’s Dole Institute of Politics will be host to a nationally broadcast debate about the future of high-speed Internet service and telecommunications.The Freestate Center, a Topeka-based economic think tank, will sponsor the event at 2:30 p.m. Oct. 31 at the Dole Institute. The panel will include U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan.; Marilyn Showalter, chairwoman of the Washington State Utilities Commission, and Thomas Hazlett, former chief economist of the Federal Communications Commission.The debate will be broadcast live over the Internet at www.ksfreestate.org. A limited number of seats are available at the Dole Institute. For reservations, call Bob Corkins at 233-8765.

The FCC defines broadband as technology that delivers data at 200 or more kilobytes per second, compared to the maximum speed of 56 kilobytes per second for a traditional dial-up computer modem.

The federal commission said that at the end of 2002, there were almost 194,000 high-speed Internet access lines in Kansas, or 29 percent more than in June 2002. About 74 percent of those lines are cable.

Last month, SBC Communications Inc., the state’s largest telecom provider, reached an agreement with the KCC’s staff and the ratepayers board, under which it agreed to provide DSL service to 81 new communities by the end of 2004, bringing the total number to 105.

Holmes said other companies, such as Sprint Corp., have their own deployment plans and, “There’s an awful lot of activity right now.”