It’s easy for those living in urban or suburban areas to take the internet for granted. But if you live in a rural district, the advantages of online-accessible information, work, commerce, health care, education, and other resources are not at all a sure thing. To begin leveling the playing field, the Indiana Association of REALTORS® (IAR) joined a coalition to identify where broadband internet access is needed. A Rural Outreach Grant from the REALTOR® Party supported the cause.
As Maggie McShane, IAR’s Senior Vice President of Government Affairs, puts it, “Internet access is the great equalizer of the future, and the gap between the haves and the have-nots became especially pronounced during COVID, when so many resources and services went online.” She notes that REALTORS® have a double interest in bringing high-speed access to their communities: not only is it an essential work tool in their own industry, but their clients and local employers reasonably expect it as a reliable utility.
Fortunately, the federal government’s 2021 Infrastructure and Jobs Act provided over $868M for broadband expansion alone, in the state of Indiana. The question was finding the weak spots where that funding was needed. “We couldn’t rely on service providers for this information,” explains McShane. “Because they are not incentivized to install high-speed connections to rural areas, they might have simply reported on connectivity, not speed. There’s a big difference.”
With the grant support from the REALTOR® Party, IAR partnered with the Indiana Farm Bureau, Duke Energy Association, the Indiana Association of Counties, and others in a coalition called the Indiana Broadband Strategic Partnership. Together, they promoted a simple, at-home internet speed test in rural areas across the state to determine where connectivity needed to be strengthened. IAR got the word out through its website and targeted direct mailings. It also granted local associations NAR Core Standards activity credit for promoting the testing. “We urged them to have members share the test with clients, customers, the whole community. It makes perfect sense to ask a client during a listing meeting, ‘Could you run a quick speed test?’ And that’s another valuable data point,” says McShane. IAR has built a rural component into its annual housing summit, and in 2023, used another portion of the grant to bring in an expert from Purdue University to address the importance of broadband as an equalizer in underserved areas.
Aggregating the addresses that tested as needing higher speed service, the coalition delivered the data to the federal government during the public comment period, before distribution of funds got underway. In all, 40K Hoosier households took the test; the survey revealed that 11% of Indiana residents were underserved by high-speed internet. Says McShane, “The availability of these grant funds actually drives us to look for more opportunities to serve our rural consumers. In this case, it enabled us to give them a voice.”
The survey produced a better, clearer snapshot of Indiana’s internet service status, but building out infrastructure takes time. The state is now in the process of distributing funds to grant applicants, mostly service providers, and only then will the state’s broadband deserts begin to feel the benefits. The next step, already underway, she says, is determining where the state will need to subsidize the service to ensure affordability.
To learn more about how the Indiana Association of REALTORS® is working to extend the benefits of fast broadband internet access to rural areas throughout the state, contact Maggie McShane, Senior Vice President of Government Affairs, at mmcshane@indianarealtors.com or 317.408.3896.
Post a comment