Disconnected: Broadband access lags in rural Georgia

In Georgia, at least 626,070 people live without access to broadband service, according to the Federal Communications Commission. But it’s probably closer to 1.6 million Georgians who lack access to adequate broadband, according to the state Department of Community Affairs, which is in the midst of a statewide mapping project. The agency’s initial work shows a patchwork of coverage that is particularly thin in parts of middle and South Georgia. Only about 4 percent of homes and businesses in Baldwin County lack access while a stunning 86 percent go without a decent connection just one county over in Hancock County.

Many rural Georgians who are living with little to no internet service are also customers of not-for-profit electric cooperatives, which have been piping electricity to rural communities nationally since the 1930s. A proposal to empower these electric co-ops, along with a handful of telephone co-ops, to provide broadband service has once again emerged in the GA General Assembly as a way to help boost rural broadband. It’s the third such attempt. A lead proponent of the measure, GA State Rep Penny Houston (R-Nashville), is pushing the idea in 2019 with a sense of urgency, citing a looming application deadline for $600 million in federal loans and grants for rural broadband. Enabling the state’s 41 electric co-ops, or electric membership corporations, to enter the broadband game would bolster the state’s case for claiming a share of that money.