Georgia Governor Roy Barnes and BellSouth Corp. today announced a major initiative to build a broadband infrastructure throughout the state and deliver high-speed Internet access to rural Georgia residents and all of Georgia's approximately 1,800 K-12 schools. The project is the largest statewide deployment of broadband capability ever in the nation.

The initial phase of the plan would significantly increase the state's broadband telecommunications switching infrastructure and provide access to high-speed services for residents in and around 17 different communities in predominantly rural Georgia. This multi-year initiative will eventually deliver broadband access to hundreds of thousands of rural Georgia residents.

Broadband technology allows for downloading Internet information at speeds up to 1.5 megabits per second and is approximately 50 times faster for accessing the Internet than average speeds delivered by dial-up modems.

BellSouth today provides high-speed service in Atlanta, Augusta, Athens, Carrollton and Rome. During the initial deployment, high-speed access capability would be extended to the following Georgia communities:

Albany
Americus
Bremen
Brunswick
Columbus
Dublin
Eastman
Elberton
Waycross Gainesville
Macon
Rockmart
Savannah
Thomasville
Thomson
Valdosta
Warner Robins

"Eliminating the gap between a high-speed, urban Georgia and an off-line, rural Georgia is critical to our future prosperity. We want to move forward together as one state," said Gov. Barnes. "By creating a powerful incentive for BellSouth and other businesses to invest in rural areas, we will turn a digital divide into a digital opportunity."

"Because of the foresight of the Governor and General Assembly, we will be able to put the bulk of this high-speed infrastructure in place within the next 12 months," Phil Jacobs, BellSouth's President - Georgia said. "The benefits will extend beyond high-speed Internet access to rural areas. This plan will significantly improve the speed and interconnectivity of K-12 schools in every school district in the state."

The initiative is being funded by BellSouth capital investments and tax incentives provided through the Business Expansion and Support Act (BEST). The Georgia Assembly established BEST to encourage investment in rural parts of the state. The cost of the plan will be in the tens of millions of dollars annually.

Gov. Barnes has made rural development a priority in his administration. In August 1999, the Gov. Barnes established the Rural Development Council. This 30-member body is comprised of leaders from the business, education and government communities and is chaired by Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor. Lt. Gov. Taylor said the plan will be a strong draw to bring businesses to rural Georgia.

"Any business can locate operations virtually anywhere in rural Georgia and have the same high-speed, broadband access as they would in a downtown metro," Lt. Governor Taylor said. "This new infrastructure can be a tremendous boost to economic development in Georgia and also aid in efficiently delivering government services on-line, such as business licenses and car registrations. Telecommuting can become a viable option for employers, too."

In the next 12 months, BellSouth will install high-speed, multimedia switching capability in the Albany, Columbus, Macon and Savannah local calling regions, or LATAs. These capabilities will be in addition to those in the Atlanta and Augusta calling regions today. Therefore, each of Georgia's six LATAs will have multimedia switching capability.

Bulked Up Infrastructure Delivers Broadband
Jump for K-12
Under an existing contract with the Georgia Department of Education, BellSouth is in the process of building a network to offer on-line Internet access speeds of 384kbps (kilobits per second) to all of Georgia's school districts. Individual schools within those districts then share that available capacity, giving each school average Internet access speeds of 38kbps.

The new initiative will allow for each school district to offer 256K of Internet access per school, an increase of 600% over the current arrangement. The Federal Communications Commission defines broadband as the capability of supporting at least 200kbps.

Rural Areas Trail Urban for Broadband Access
BellSouth and Georgia officials both referenced a recent report from the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the Agriculture Department's Rural Utilities Service. The report stated broadband services have been deployed in urban areas more than in rural communities.

The report found that less than five percent of towns of 10,000 or less have access to broadband technology. The primary reason for the slower deployment of advanced services in rural areas is economic, the report said. The cost to serve a customer increases the greater the distance among customers. Only 2 million of the country's 102 million households have access to broadband capability.

"Cost is certainly a major barrier to develop these rural markets," Jacobs said. "But with the right incentives in place, we can deploy very quickly and create a tremendous new market for us along with economic opportunity for the state."

BellSouth is a $25 billion communications services company. It provides telecommunications services, Internet, data and e-commerce applications, wireless communications, entertainment services, and online and directory advertising to nearly 39 million customers in 19 countries worldwide.

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