Slow internet, slow solutions for N.C. families stranded by coronavirus
While Marsha Davenport and her family are home for now, they want do things on the internet like anyone else: do homework, fill out forms, stream Netflix and FaceTime friends.
But they’re one of nearly 5,000 households in Orange County who don’t have access to quality internet.
Davenport is a retired physician, and her kids, Ana and Marco, are students at Carrboro High School. Her partner, Margaret Leigh, is a physician at UNC-Chapel Hill.
They use AT&T DSL that’s older than Ana and Marco, installed in their Chapel Hill home when Davenport moved in around 20 years ago. DSL — digital subscriber line — is a form of internet service, similar to dial-up in that it uses telephone wiring to connect to the internet. However, unlike dial-up, it doesn’t prevent phone calls from being made while on the internet.
It offers speeds of around 1.5 to 3 megabits per second for downloads and less than 1 for uploads — much slower than the average speeds of around 100 Mbps or higher download speeds offered by providers like Spectrum and AT&T in cities through cable modem WiFi.
For instance, Netflix recommends customers have at least 3 Mbps for one standard definition stream of a movie or show.
Davenport said there are times when the internet service fails completely for hours at a time.
Despite their Chapel Hill address, the home is actually three or four miles from the center of town. “People don’t really think of us as rural,” she told The News & Observer, yet most of their neighbors use DSL or just have no home internet access at all.
”I wait so long,” Davenport said. “We’ll be filling out forms and it’ll just freeze. Not to mention trying to stream things. I’m always yelling at the kids, ‘Who’s using the internet?’”
Pixelated, frozen and impossible
Ana, a senior in high school, tried to video chat with a friend recently, but her face was pixelated and frozen half the time so she gave up.
Although online classes haven’t begun just yet, she’s already having to figure out how she’s going to attend them and do her homework. Marsha said Marco hasn’t really thought about school too much.
Normally people without broadband would have other options, like libraries and community centers, but those are all closed due to coronavirus concerns. So for now, Ana said she’s just planning on doing her work at home the best she can. If that doesn’t work, she might find a friend, only one friend, who’s willing to let her come over for their internet service.
She also said she’s waiting to hear back from colleges, like Georgetown and NYU about the status of her applications. Some of her friends have already received responses from North Carolina schools, but she’s just trying to not worry about it.
Leigh, the associate director of the UNC Cystic Fibrosis Center, still has to go into the office every day and can’t bring any of her work home, because their DSL isn’t fast enough.
“It’s really impossible to do any clinical work at home because of the flow of internet service,” she said. “Most physicians bring paperwork home to do on their computers, but you just can’t do it here.”
Bonnie Hauser, who was recently elected to her first term on the Orange County Schools Board of Education, also lives in Orange County and uses Century Link DSL. She said she gets about 3 Mbps from it, twice as much as some of her neighbors.
She said she’s worried about school planning for students using laptops for the next couple of months, and not just a week or two, and the unanticipated need for better broadband at people’s homes now.
“People are going home to work, and now all of a sudden you’ve got three or four people sharing the very narrow bandwidth,” Hauser said.
‘Chipping away’ at solutions
The Governor’s Task Force on Connecting North Carolina, a group created by executive order in 2019, met March 26 to hear companies present different ways they’re working to equip rural areas with quality broadband. The three companies presenting were Microsoft, 8 Rivers and SpaceX.
In the recent budget discussions, Gov. Roy Cooper proposed spending $30 million to expand the Growing Rural Economies with Access to Technology grant program.
To help the estimated 169,000 homes and businesses that lack quality internet service — 25 Mbps download speeds or higher and 3 for upload — the companies offered strategies that are more affordable and more feasible for areas that don’t offer broadband providers profitable markets.
David Goldman, director of satellite policy for SpaceX, said the company is working to use its already prominent space satellite infrastructure to serve rural areas.
Goldman said their internet service will be different than traditional satellite internet, known for sub-quality speeds, because SpaceX launches 60 satellites at a time into space at a lower orbit than usual, making for quicker and more reliable connections. The company is planning on offering its first service this year to more remote areas, with competitive speeds and prices compared to urban areas.
Microsoft spokesperson Erica Meyers said the company partners with internet and energy providers, as well as equipment makers, to offer affordable access to rural Americans through its Airband Initiative. They give partners access to discounts on equipment and cloud space, in exchange for working in under-served areas.
8 Rivers, a Durham-based company focused on sustainable energy technology, is looking for funding to bring weather optical communications systems to North Carolina. The systems use lasers to broadcast internet service, which the company says is easy to install and as fast as fiber but wireless.
Mary Penny Kelly, director of operations and rural engagement for the governor’s Hometown Strong Initiative, said the need for internet service is even more pertinent now as many are working from home.
“We’re having to go to this virtual reality,” she said.
Orange County has been trying to fix its broadband access problem since 2017, when it first approved spending $500,000 on a partnership with Open Broadband to serve 2,700 homes — around half the county’s need.
The deal meant Open Broadband would bring fixed-wireless internet service to communities outside town limits, attaching equipment to cell towers and other tall structures which broadcast to wireless receivers outside of people’s homes. It usually has speeds from 25 to 100 Mbps and the company says the price usually start below $40 per month.
But roughly a year-and-a-half later, only 100 or so Orange County residents have had their needs met. The pilot is still in phase one despite original expectations to be in its second phase in a different part of the county by now, partially because the cost — $2,500 per installation — is higher than expected.
Jim Northrup, IT director for Orange County, said another reason for the program’s slow pace is the area’s flat land and heavy tree cover, which blocks some wireless signals, and have made it difficult to install the equipment.
“They’re chipping away, inch by inch,” he said.
‘I’m free!’
Hauser said she’s had Orange County residents mention hope for 5G, the next iteration of wireless carrier coverage, with much faster speeds. However, 5G requires more cell towers to work, which may not be feasible yet in a county that’s still behind on it’s WiFi goals.
“People say ‘What about 5G?’” Hauser said. “We’re not even in the line of sight for 5G.”
Davenport said her house was just outside of the lines drawn for phase 2 of the Open Broadband project.
In the meantime, her neighborhood tried to work with Spectrum to see if they would run cable lines into the area and bring high speed internet.
She said Spectrum would only consider it if a bulk of the neighborhood would opt in for it, with long-term contracts. They’re still figuring out if enough folks would do it to make it feasible.
“We’re looking forward to the day when we feel like we’re in a first-world situation,” Davenport said. “Like you get that feeling of ‘I’m free!’”
For now, they’re trying to find a puppy, something to pass the time.
This story was originally published March 31, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
