Broadband in Indiana: wiring the last mile to Hoosiers.

• Author: McKimmie, Kathy
• Position: Information Technology

INFRASTRUCTURE HAS always been important to Indiana's economic-development efforts. In the past, that's meant laying concrete connections to Interstate highways. But increasingly it means laying black wire for Internet connections--or even going wireless. Communities across the state are putting high-speed access on their list of must-have amenities to attract and retain businesses, and providers are stepping up to provide state-of-the-art connectivity.

"Site selectors are asking, 'What is the broadband access?' and 'What's the connection to the rest of the world?'" says Dennis Paramore, director of research and technology at the Indiana Department of Commerce. "We're not just competing with other states but with the world, and we need to be prepared."

Results of a statewide survey of broadband access, titled "Connections in an Information Age: Indiana at Work and Home," were released in July by INdiana INterconnect, a cooperative initiative of the Indiana Department of Commerce, Indiana Economic Development Council and the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership.

Assessing access to broadband services and quality were key, says Paramore. Parts of northwest and southwest Indiana are not being served, he says, and the quality of connections in some parts of the state is poor. "Three-fourths of respondents had at least one interuption in service per month."

You can't be a tier one or tier two manufacturing supplier without a good Internet connection, he says, so it's key in a location decision. and reliability with no disconnects is critical in transmitting huge data files. For example, it may take a major hospital hours to transmit data files overnight; if it has an interruption, it would have to start all over the next day.

Major findings of the study, which can be found at www.iedc.org, show that nearly 70 percent of Hoosiers have broadband access (a one-year increase of 67 percent), but Indiana's subscription rate of 21 percent lags the national rate of 25.5 percent.

INdiana INterconnect's advisory board concluded its report by recommending that Indiana increase statewide broadband access from 70 percent to 80 percent by the end of 2004, and raise subscription rates from 21 percent to 33 percent. Gov. Joe Kernan, endorsed these objectives while lieutenant governor at INdiana INterconnect's inaugural conference in July at Ball State University, says Paramore.

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