New research unveiled today by Connected Tennessee shows that the broadband availability gap in Tennessee is shrinking, with 95% of Tennesseans now having access to broadband. In addition, 77.9% of Tennessee households have access to fixed broadband speeds of at least 100 Mbps download/1.5 Mbps upload. In October 2011, only 41.8% of households in Tennessee had access to these broadband speeds.

Connected Tennessee has been working since 2007 to ensure that Tennessee residents have access to the economic, educational, and quality of life benefits derived from increased broadband access, adoption, and use.

Among the key findings of the new broadband availability research: 

• 91.89% of Tennessee households can access broadband service, including mobile wireless broadband, at advertised speeds of 6 Mbps download/1.5 Mbps upload, meaning that 202,144 households are in areas that may be eligible for Universal Service Fund broadband deployment subsidies.
  
  
   
• 88.35% of Tennessee households can access fixed broadband service at speeds of at least 10 Mbps download/1.5 Mbps upload.
   
• 91.5% of rural households in Tennessee have access to fixed broadband service of at least 768 Kbps download/200 Mbps upload (excluding mobile wireless service).
   
• Basic broadband is available to 95.06% of Tennessee households.
   
• 80.54% of Tennessee households have the ability to choose broadband service from two or more non-mobile broadband providers.

“We are encouraged that our efforts to bridge the broadband access gap are showing clear results,” said Connected Tennessee Executive Director Corey Johns. “Progress must continue, however, in order to bring the empowering technology of broadband to the remaining 123,220 Tennessee households unserved by basic, non-mobile, high-speed Internet.”

Last month, Connected Tennessee released an innovative new broadband mapping tool called My ConnectView^TM, which offers unmatched views of Tennessee’s technology landscape. Residents and businesses are encouraged to use the interactive map to find area providers and help validate the data.

Connected Tennessee’s research was conducted as part of the State Broadband Initiative (SBI) grant program, funded by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). The data were gathered in accordance with the requirements of the Notice of Funds Availability (NOFA) and subsequent clarifications set forth by NTIA. The process begins by contacting all known providers in the state and providing information about the broadband mapping project. Information on broadband service areas is collected from each willing provider through voluntary participation. A nondisclosure agreement (NDA) is offered to all providers prior to the submission of data; the data protected through the NDA is limited to highly sensitive network infrastructure information, including middle-mile locations. Connected Nation strives to maintain a flexible mapping process in order to be able to collect data from providers in a variety of formats based on providers’ technical capabilities and resources.