The Broadband Gap In America

Not long ago I did a post about working from home.  Specifically, I highlighted a Bloomberg article showing that many workers are quitting instead of going back into the office.  I’m all about sticking it to the man when necessary. 

As I said in that post, I’ve been contemplating what I’d do if my employer demanded me back and to be frank I’m not sure.  It’s one of those things that would just have to happen for me to have a clue how I’d really react. 

While there’s been a ton of discussion about working from home on the net and in the news, there’s been way less about a precursor to being able to do it.  That is, having access to a decent internet connection. 

Many readers, especially in wealthy areas of the country or world, may have just scratched their head and said “What!? You mean there are people who don’t have access to a good internet connection?” 

Yes, as weird as it may sound to some, it’s very true.  Tools like Zoom and Skype which many jobs and schools have been relying on usually require a broadband connection. 

While the vast majority of Americans have access to an internet connection, more than you probably think do not have access to or are not currently receiving a broadband connection of sufficient speed to work or school their kids from home.

Leave it to me to find some cool interactive mapping tools that show where there are gaps in broadband coverage in America.

 

What Is Broadband?

You may be asking right off the bat, what is defined as broadband speed?

The Federal Communications Commission defines broadband internet as at least 25 megabits (mbs) per second for downloads and 3 megabits per second for uploads.  If you are a technical person, you know that these are actually pretty slow speeds.  Most of the country has access to these speeds since old-school DSL and even some phone lines can meet them. 

But even if we stick by the underwhelming FCC guidelines, which are widely criticized, why is there a gap?  In short, the FCC doesn’t see much of a problem because their own reports of who has access to these speeds come from data from the providers themselves.  And of course the providers are going to paint the best scenario possible.  How about measuring what speeds folks are actually getting? 

If you’re not aware, there are plenty of sites to check instantly what speeds you’re getting.  But can this be done on a broad scale?  If you get help from the major cloud providers it can.  Here’s how the Verge describes their data source, which comes from Microsoft:

Instead of the FCC’s data, we drew on an anonymized dataset collected by Microsoft through its cloud services network, published in increments by the company over the past 18 months. If the FCC monitors the connections that providers say they’re offering, this measures what they’re actually getting. 

So the Verge created a map of the broadband gap based off data from a company that does not provide internet service.  Let’s just say I trust it more.  That said, let’s look at the map.

 

The Broadband Gap Map

When you open the map, you’ll see a basic view of the country with all counties colored either white or blue.  

 

This map is as simple as they come – if the county is blue that means fewer than 15 percent of households in that county are getting broadband speed.  Simply hover your mouse over any county to see the percentage value for that county.

Note – if a county is blue it doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t have access to broadband speed.  Most internet providers have different service tiers and undoubtedly many consumers are choosing to pay less for slower speeds.  I’m sure this is because the cost of higher speeds is often just too high. 

It’s also true that in other cases consumers are paying for 25mbs or higher but not actually getting those speeds as measured by Microsoft. 

Looking at the geographic patterns, like seemingly everything in America lines are largely drawn between poor counties and wealthy ones.  There’s a lot more blue counties in the deep South, and you can even follow a blue line of Appalachia that traces roughly from Tennessee up to Northeast Pennsylvania, with some gaps.

Also of note, many large and very sparsely populated counties such as those in northern Nevada and Alaska are blue, but that’s no real surprise.

 

The FCC’s Map

It turns out the FCC themselves have an interactive map.  If you go to theirs you are immediately prompted to enter an address before you can navigate.

 

If you do enter an address you’ll be presented with the number of internet providers for that address.  This is very handy if you’re considering geoarbitrage as presumably you’d want to know how many options you have for internet connectivity. 

To avoid entering an address and to just explore, click the “Location” button an the map will change to this:

 

That interface shows the whole country divided by county and color coded for the number of internet providers in each.  The results you get when you click a county also tell you if they’re a satellite provider or a landline provider, as well as the download and upload speeds offered in that location. 

You can also get this information at BroadbandNow.com by zip code instead of county.  Zip codes are usually smaller and will be more precise, but the BroadbandNow site gives the information mostly by list only.  They have some rough state-based maps but I prefer the county-wide mapping interfaces because I’m a map dork. 

 

Department Of Commerce

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) also has a slick interactive map showing broadband needs In America at the census tract and even census block level. (*2022 update – this site is now behind a login wall)

Click on a county on the map and you’ll see:

• the percentage of households without internet access,
• the percentage of households without a computer, tablet, or smartphone,
• the median M-Lab internet speed
• the median Ookla internet speed
• percentage of downloads completed Over 25 Mbps or higher according to Microsoft

If you zoom to the county you can then see a more detailed geographic look at census tracts, and if you zoom in real far you can get to the census blocks.  That is a very detailed level!

 

Broadband Is Important

We’re used to having access all of the worlds information on the internet.  Increasingly that information comes in video and larger content types, and requires good connectivity.  Broadband access to the internet is crucial in 2021.  The Verge described it this way:

If broadband access was a problem before 2020, the pandemic turned it into a crisis. As everyday businesses moved online, city council meetings or court proceedings became near-inaccessible to anyone whose connection couldn’t support a Zoom call. Some school districts started providing Wi-Fi hotspots to students without a reliable home connection. In other districts, kids set up in McDonald’s parking lots just to get a reliable enough signal to do their homework. After years of slowly widening, the broadband gap became impossible to ignore.

One shouldn’t have to go to a McDonald’s parking lot to do their homework, that’s ridiculous.  We need to eliminate the broadband gap.

Elon Musks’s SpaceX company is currently deploying a system called Starlink which if successful in its completion aims to provide broadband intent access to the entire planet. 

They do offer service to some areas now including some near me, you can check if you have access here.  I am 100% behind this effort as I believe knowledge and access to it should be available to every human on the planet.

 

Geoarbitrage

So there you have it financial warriors, a few mapping tools that give you valuable data on broadband internet access and more.  Any consideration of a geoarbitrage move in the information age should take into account whether an area or a specific house has access to good high speed and affordable internet connectivity.  Additionally, if you’re a real estate investor and want to make sure a prospective property has good internet access, these tools are invaluable.

I post lots of tools like this that show various aspects of money and finance from a location perspective.  

Also be sure to check out my Geoarbitrage Resources Page that has tons of great tools to help you find your perfect location.

I hope you find these resources handy and I will continue to expose valuable tools that can help when deciding on a geoarbitrage strategy.