BRYSON CITY — Robin Fronrath figures a corporate retreat center near the log cabins he rents to tourists would be a natural except for one thing.

“If I could get DSL in here and make my little valley hot where people could come here with wireless laptops — it’s going to be a big deal for me,” he said.

Fronrath is a step closer as high-speed Internet access pushes into remote pockets of Western North Carolina.

Verizon announced this month it has expanded high-speed access in Cherokee, Graham and Macon counties, the only ones west of Buncombe in which no more than 70 percent of households can get speedy Internet. The expansion also will serve parts of Jackson County and Swain County, where Fronrath’s business is located.

That progress addresses a national problem: Only 25 percent of households in the rural United States can get high-speed Internet, compared with 44 percent in urban areas, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

Rural users aren’t behind because they don’t want the service. The Pew project found that while rural areas lagged in users, the percentage of growth increase was the same as in suburban areas — meaning when broadband is available, rural customers will buy it.

The gap has hampered economic development, WNC officials say, and soon will affect people as more information and entertainment are delivered on the Internet.

A rural success

Some WNC economic development officials noticed years ago that there was a demand in rural areas, but the infrastructure wasn’t being built. They came up with a solution: the BalsamWest FiberNET.

In 2003, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians worked with Southwestern Community College and Franklin-based software developer Drake Enterprises to build a fiber optics loop through the region. It was completed in March.

The $10 million network was developed to serve businesses, nonprofits and governments. Businesses already are enjoying its benefits.

Harris Regional Hospital, part of the WestCare system, last year connected to the network at a lower price than it was getting on the commercial market and got faster service.

High-speed communication for residential users remains in the hands of for-profit companies like Verizon. And those companies make decisions on upgrading their access options based on numbers of users.

“I think that rural areas will lag because there are just not sufficient concentrations of populations for the provider of high-speed access to justify the cost of investment,” said Cecil Groves, president of SCC and one of the architects of the BalsamWest deal.

Fiber optics is next

Groves said Verizon’s DSL expansion is beneficial for now but soon will be eclipsed by even faster technology being unveiled in large cities. The recent expansion is expected to bring DSL a third of a mile closer to 4,700 customers in North Carolina, some in the eastern part of the state.

Groves predicts a second digital divide when urban areas switch to fiber optics connected to individual homes that can deliver everything from movies on demand to health care services and security.

“It is always going to be the law of supply and demand,” he said. “So rural areas have to constantly work to make themselves competitive.”

Fronrath has owned his log cabin rental business in Swain County for seven years.
Like many entrepreneurs in the WNC tourism business, he makes a living doing more than one thing. He also runs a recording studio.

He already has a clubhouse built for his corporate retreat idea, and he is working with local company Dnet Internet Services to get high-speed access over Verizon’s lines.

Partnerships like that one are how rural WNC will stay connected in the future, said John Short, general manger of BalsamWest FiberNET.

Short said he believes smaller providers will soon use his company’s fiber optics infrastructure to route services to individuals.

Because the fiber is already in the ground, it saves the providers money and makes serving rural areas more attractive.

“The idea is to allow people in our region to be able to connect with anybody they want to,” he said.