| Ha! "Competitive" my #@$%! I live in Arkansas, and I can tell you that this state is NOT competitive for broadband. Everyone wants it. Nobody is offering it. My residence? No broadband available... at all. Only thing I can get here is 3g (which is now limited to 5gig per month--one download can exceed that). Luckily I have line of sight to my office that DOES have DSL coverage (still no cablemodem provider there) so I at least have broadband thanks to a pair of wireless radios. The competition there? We can get att's 3meg per month... or one of 3 other companies that resell att's dsl line... at double the cost and half the speed.
The research company needs to take into account several more metrics: broadband penetration rates and availability, population density broken, as well as 3g/cellular penetration and dial-up ISP customer penetration--all broken down by rural vs metro. Then you will see that Arkansas has a fairly high percentage of population in RURAL areas with NO broadband available.
I live in a county with 3, count them THREE different cable companies. None of which offer service in another's area. Of those, one (which covers all rural parts of the county) refuses to upgrade anything or offer broadband. The local channels through them was WORSE than using an outside antenna to receive the same channel. The other two cable companies (both of which have broadband offerings) have service for the two cities in the area... and neither one is the least bit interested in expanding their service area outside of city limits. |
