The state of broadband: Indiana ranks 34th in digital infrastructure. Goal is top quartile of states.

• Author: McKimmie, Kathy
• Position: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

JUST HOW HEAVILY wired--or wireless--is Indiana in this day and age where high-speed Internet connections are as important to commerce as interstate highway connections? Indiana ranks 34th among the states in digital infrastructure, according to the "Indiana Technology Profile," a collaborative effort between Techpoint, a statewide technology trade group, and the Indiana Chamber of Commerce. The groups hope publicly exposing the state's challenges will bring necessary action, and they're optimistic.

"We believe Indiana will be in a competitive position," says Cameron Carter, president and CEO of Techpoint, "m the top quartile of states in these measurements. That means 12th or higher."

Kevin Brinegar, president of the Indiana Chamber, says, "We need to be in the top half of states as soon as possible. We need to have broadband choices, options. It's one of our top-tier priorities."

The Technology Profile defines broadband as a "catchall phrase that encompasses cable and wireless Internet access, DSL, ISDN, T- 1 and T-3 services," just about anything but dialup. Indiana is compared with "peer states" in the Midwest: Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota and Kentucky. Only Kentucky is worse than Indiana in overall broadband infrastructure; it ranks 42nd. The highest-ranked is Minnesota at 20, then comes Illinois at 22 and Ohio at 24. Michigan weighs in at 30. But the fact that the Midwest is the focus at all begs the question: Is a narrow comparison with a handful of states still meaningful for a technology linking businesses and consumers to the world?

Three other digital infrastructure metrics are included in the report. Indiana ranked 32nd in the country and in the middle of the pack among peer states for Next Generation Internet, or "Internet2," with transmission speeds that are magnitudes beyond any link available to the average consumer or business. The state's ranking may improve, since Internet2's Abilene Network Operations Center is located in the Indiana University Informatics and Communications Technology complex on the Indianapolis campus.

Next comes rural Internet access, where Indiana ranks 26th in the country and fourth among peer states. Last is technology in schools, which measures the availability of multimedia and Internet-connected computers to students, broadband Internet access for schools and instructional use of the Internet. Indiana moved into the top half here, ranking 24th nationally and third in the region.

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