Digital Arroyos: An Examination of State Policy and Regulated Market Boundaries in Constructing Rural Internet Access

Abstract

This focused study on state-level policy and access patterns contributes to a fuller understanding of how these invisible barriers work to structure access and define rural communities. Combining both quantitative and qualitative data, this study examines the role of geo-policy barriers in one of the largest and most rural states in the nation. Expanded Area Service policies are state policies wherein phone customers can expand their local calling area. Because useful Internet access requires a flat-price connection, EAS policies can play a crucial role in connecting citizens to one another. EAS policies (including Texas') tend to vary along five dimensions (community of interest, customer scope, directionality, pricing mechanism and policy scope). EAS policies that rely on regulated market boundaries for definition can generate gross inequities in rural Internet access. Interviews with Internet Service Providers in a case study of 25 rural communities reveals that LATA and exchange boundaries, along with geographically restricted infrastructure investments, curtail service provision in remote areas. A statistical analysis of 1300 telephone exchanges, including 208 rural telephone exchanges in Texas reveals that the farther a community lies from a metropolitan area the less likely they are to have reliable Internet access