The majority of Dayton area residents have at least one broadband option for download speeds over 4mbps, the minimum speed to meet federal standards for broadband. However, there are still some areas that are underserv
ed with no broadband options or no competitive broadband providers. Most of these areas are in low-income neighborhoods that continue to suffer from the nation’s digital divide.
There are also no homes in the Dayton area with access to gigabit download speeds. Residents in several other metropolitan areas are beginning to see the economic benefits of fiber connections with speeds up to 1gbps through offers from Google Fiber and other independent ISPs.
The team at Extra Mile Fiber believes the best strategy for the Dayton community would be to address both issues with a single strategy of building fiber to area residents, starting with underserved areas of the community and other neighborhoods that would immediately embrace gigabit download speeds. Both Google Fiber and AT&T are offering nearly free serves that exceed the federal minimum download speeds to portions of their fiber rollouts.
Both companies also seem to want to use their fiber-optic programs to help bridge the nation’s digital divide and to bring free, or nearly-free, broadband service to underserved low-income homes for those who want it.
About 28% of U.S. homes still don’t have broadband service, which is defined by federal officials as download speeds of least 4 Mbps.
via As AT&T and Google push broadband adoption, the feds are non-players – CIO.
The Dayton region can expect the same strategy from Extra Mile Fiber. The economic benefits of fiber to the home and gigabit broadband speeds are well established in many areas of the country and internationally. The costs to build fiber within the Dayton region is extensive, but there are ways to start building the network without waiting for the government to make a big investment.
If you are interested in working with Extra Mile Fiber to bring fiber to your community, contact us to discuss these ideas soon.
Leigh Sandy is the founder of Extra Mile Fiber and has been building and operating networks connected to the Internet since 1995.