A new study from Edinburgh-headquartered connectivity consultancy FarrPointindicates that Harlan County in Southeastern Kentucky could generate over 70 million dollars in direct economic benefits by improving broadband connectivity infrastructure and adoption in the area.
FarrPoint announced its US expansion and new Boston office opening last year.
This new report, which was conducted in partnership with Kentucky’s Shaping Our Appalachian Region (SOAR) and non-profit impact fund Connect Humanity, shows the importance of investing in connectivity in a county that has been affected by depopulation and deprivation.
‘Doing this study for a rural area in Kentucky has been very rewarding. Even though it’s far from Scotland, we found a lot of similarities in challenges that rural areas face across the Atlantic – from depopulation to broadband rollout challenges’, says Andrew Muir, CEO at FarrPoint.
Harlan County, a former mining area, has experienced economic challenges for the last few decades, with over 30% of residents declaring income below the poverty line (significantly higher than the 12.5% US average). The decline of the coal industry has driven substantial depopulation, with Harlan losing 36% of its residents in the last 40 years, bringing its current population to just over 26,000.
The overall impact of improved digital connectivity across Harlan County could lead to significant benefits, including:
- Access to good quality broadband infrastructure in Harlan County is far below the US average (with 16.1% of the County unserved by broadband networks, compared to 3.8% nationally). The analysis has demonstrated that improvements to infrastructure availability could lead to $8.7 million of economic benefit to the region.
- In addition, adoption rates of online services are nearly 9% below the US average. If measures are taken to reach parity with the rest of the country, this could lead to a further $5.6 million of economic benefit to the region.
- Improving the availability of broadband could result in over 1,000 people either re-locating or staying in the county, resulting in an economic impact of over $57.2 million.
To tackle depopulation, various programs have been launched in the region to attract people to relocate to Harlan County, including those led by SOAR.
“Broadband is fundamental to efforts to bring jobs, businesses, and new residents to Eastern Kentucky. When I ask people what they need to relocate or invest, high-speed internet consistently ranks top alongside housing, healthcare, and education. This report shows just how transformative connectivity investments can be for rural communities like Harlan County”, says Colby Hall, Director at SOAR.
‘In addition to picturesque landscapes and affordable housing, high-speed connectivity has been one of the main selling points to Pedro Morgado, one of the case studies of this report. Pedro, who relocated to Harlan from Florida, said that lack of fiber broadband would have been a deal-breaker for him moving to this area, as it’s essential to work from home.
But not all areas in Harlan County are covered by fast reliable broadband, posing a need for further investment to improve connectivity in the county.
‘In addition to infrastructure investment, the county also needs to address broadband affordability and adoption concerns to realize the full economic benefits’, says Andrew Muir, CEO of FarrPoint. ‘Our work has shown that increased digital adoption could result in an additional $5.6 million of economic benefits to Harlan County’.