Gov. Jennifer Granholm said Tuesday that an economic stimulus project run by an Ann Arbor nonprofit would fulfill her goal to "have every corner of Michigan connected online," an objective she laid out in her 2004 State of the State address.
“I’ve only got four more months left," she said at a press conference in Ann Arbor, "and I’m glad my promise from 2004 is actually going to happen."
A closer look at that promise, though, shows that the original goal was not met.
During that State of the State speech in 2004, Granholm said, "By 2007 we will have brought high-speed internet service to every corner of our state, through the work of the Michigan Broadband Development Authority," according to text of the speech still available on the state's website.
But the new funding Granholm praised Tuesday -- $111 million provided to Ann Arbor-based Merit Network to construct fiber optic networks in underserved areas throughout the state -- comes from the federal government, not the state. And thousands of residents -- including many in western Washtenaw County -- are likely to be without viable broadband options after the project is complete.
Granholm suggested that Merit's program -- which involves construction of more than 2,000 miles of fiber optic networks in the Lower and Upper Peninsulas in summer 2011 -- would help bridge the gap to Michigan's unserved households.
"Michigan will be connected with high-speed Internet no matter where you live," Granholm said Tuesday.
But Granholm, whose second and final term expires Jan. 1, acknowledged that Michigan's budget crisis prevented the state from helping to fund broadband Internet access improvements.
"All the revenue cratered because of everything that's happened in Michigan, and we haven't had the means to invest," she said Tuesday.
Merit Network's projects, albeit wide-ranging and perhaps worthwhile, won’t provide high-speed access to all residents in Michigan. In fact, many rural residents are likely to remain without viable broadband options for their home.
Gov. Jennifer Granholm speaks at a press conference Tuesday to celebrate Ann Arbor nonprofit Merit Network's $111 million in stimulus funding.
Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com
Some 4.6 percent of Michigan households still don't have access to land-based broadband Internet, according to a Connect Michigan study conducted this spring and funded by the Michigan Public Service Commission.
Most of those homes are located in rural areas that Internet service providers don't attempt to reach because providing high-speed service to those regions is not profitable. (View a map showing where high-speed Internet is and is not available throughout Michigan.)
Merit said its project, which involves constructing fiber networks measuring more than 2,000 miles, could improve access for 525,000 households and 49,000 businesses throughout the Lower and Upper Peninsulas. Merit said its fiber would "pass over" 525,000 households.
Most experts agree that affordable access to high-speed Internet is vital to helping businesses innovate and create jobs.
"Just as 50 years ago we used the strength of steel to link our two peninsulas, we will now use the power of this new technology to link every community in our state to economic opportunity," Granholm said in 2004. "Broadband will be this generation's Mackinac Bridge."
Merit Network's primary mission with the project is to improve high-speed Internet access at 569 "community anchor institutions" such as universities, libraries and schools.
Improving access to homes is a side effect of Merit's efforts to lay more fiber optic cables, which a few private companies will pay to access.
The economic stimulus funding awarded to Merit by the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration will support the construction of the advanced fiber optic networks.
Several private sector firms have agreed to invest about $30 million in Merit's project in exchange for access to some of the fiber strands laid by Merit. They will turn around and use the strands to sell high-speed Internet access to businesses and residents.
But the broader challenge of extending high-speed Internet access to rural residents and companies largely remains.
In western Washtenaw County, for example, many residents don't have viable high-speed Internet options.
That's a key reason why community activists, government officials and business leaders formed the county's municipal wireless initiative several years ago.
The program, called Wireless Washtenaw, successfully created a 100-square-mile wireless cloud, but it covers about 1/7th of the county and the service had only about 500 daily users as of earlier this year. Wireless Washtenaw's federal stimulus funding application was rejected earlier this year.
That effectively means that residents and businesses in underserved areas hoping for high-speed access are at the mercies of governmental initiatives or market forces.
Government investment in broadband infrastructure is critical to hastening access to high-speed Internet, said Larry Strickling, the assistant secretary for communications and information at the Department of Commerce and administrator of the NTIA.
"These investments are going to lay the groundwork for sustainable economic growth in the state by connecting and upgrading areas of the state that for too long have been without" high-speed access, Strickling said.
Contact AnnArbor.com's Nathan Bomey at (734) 623-2587 or nathanbomey@annarbor.com. You can also follow him on Twitter or subscribe to AnnArbor.com's newsletters.
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