Clarification: The story has been updated to clarify that U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn voted for $600 million dedicated to broadband grants and loans in rural areas nationally on the House floor but against it when the money became part of an omnibus bill.

For Tennessee residents living in Hamilton County, home to Chattanooga's municipally provided internet, 1 percent of residents lack access to basic internet speeds.

But in Hickman County, 35 percent lack access to basic internet, or speeds of 25 megabits per second. In Wayne, Perry and Hancock counties, each classified by the state as economically distressed or at-risk, about 20 percent to 30 percent lack access, according a 2016 report from the Tennessee Economic and Community Development office.

"A lot of people don’t have it at home," said Hickman County Library Director David Dansby. "If you can get it at home, it's dial-up and hard to connect."

Hickman residents depend on the library's internet to fill out unemployment claims, look for jobs, complete homework and conduct basic tasks, he said. While some live just a few minutes away, others will drive a half hour to use the library's internet.

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The effect of limited broadband access plays out in transmitting health care data, telemedicine, basic business operations, public safety, property values and education at all levels, prompting both Tennessee candidates for U.S. Senate — Republican U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn and former Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen — to emphasize the critical need for greater connection in rural areas of Tennessee.

But the two candidates are taking different approaches to how they would work to boost broadband access in rural areas and what role the federal government should play.

Blackburn and Bredesen are vying to succeed the retiring U.S. Sen. Bob Corker in the Nov. 6 general election. Early voting begins Wednesday.

Overcoming low-density, high costs

The hurdle to broadband expansion in rural areas is a lack of density. The cost of installation is close to the same in suburban areas, but the number of households to cover that cost per mile is much smaller, making expansion financially difficult for providers.

"The number of households simply aren’t there and the infrastructure is costly to put in," said Eric Frederick, vice president of community affairs for Kentucky-based nonprofit Connected Nation.

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Connecting each home in Tennessee to basic speeds would cost between $360 million to $1.7 billion, according to the state.

Last year, the Tennessee General Assembly passed legislation pushed by Gov. Bill Haslam allowing electric cooperatives to offer broadband service and approved $45 million in grants and tax credits for broadband expansion over a three-year period. In January, Haslam announced $10 million would be distributed, connecting 5,000 households, or close to 1 percent of the 366,000 households in Tennessee lacking access as of 2016.

For example, the law spurred companies like United Communications in Chapel Hill, Tenn., to work with electric cooperative Middle Tennessee Electric to expand broadband. The two groups announced their partnership in August.

Separately, the federal Connect America initiative has allocated $8.5 million to five Tennessee carriers this year to expand rural internet over the next 10 years to about 3,300 homes. In 2015, Tennessee carriers were awarded $179 million to connect 93,000 homes over a seven year period.

But Bredesen says grants are not enough to bring about the necessary fixes to broadband access.

“I want our country to get back to the days when it did bold projects and not just fool around the edges with grants, tax credits and demonstration projects,” Bredesen said in prepared remarks in June.

Bredesen turns to Tennessee Valley Authority

For Bredesen, the solution could be the Tennessee Valley Authority. The power provider, a federal agency, brings electricity to 9 million residents in seven states and nearly 3 million households throughout Tennessee through local power companies.

"I think TVA is a good vehicle to do this type of development because it's in its DNA. It's got the structure, the systems and the management expertise to pull off something as big as this," Bredesen told the Kiwanis Club in Clarksville in June.

"They've got 7,000 employees in the state of Tennessee alone and that's what it's going to take – a sophisticated approach from people who know what they're doing."

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TVA is self-funded through electricity sales and is not funded through taxes. If more money were needed to support this expansion of the TVA's role, Bredesen said government funding could be provided. He pointed to the nation's investment in the postal service, which ensures that residents can send and receive mail in both rural and urban areas.

"We would have been a very different nation if you had to live within 50 miles of a city to get a letter," Bredesen said in an emailed statement. "If there's some kind of subsidy, I don't mind that."

Bredesen, Tennessee governor from 2003 to 2011, said a TVA broadband model would not limit existing providers' business. As it does with electrical service, it would serve as a backbone of the system and partner with smaller power companies and cooperatives. It could also work with major commercial providers, and those entities could also play a role in the investment.

"Let’s figure out what it actually takes and how we can put that kind of money together though private investment," Bredesen said. "There’s opportunities for public private partnerships in this kind of a thing. Let’s figure out a way to do (it) and just get it done."

The TVA is undergoing a $300 million fiber initiative meant to expand fiber capacity and improve its transmission system. TVA officials said its fiber network will improve connections between operations and will include 3,500 miles of fiber in the next 10 years.

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When the TVA announced its fiber investment in May 2017, CEO Bill Johnson said there was potential to make some of the fiber network available to rural communities to support economic development.

TVA spokesman Scott Brooks emphasized that TVA is not getting into the broadband business for consumers, but that its fiber could be an option for local power companies.

"Our fiber network is in place to support power system needs, and our focus remains on our own operations," Brooks said in an emailed statement. "Should there be temporary surplus 'dark' fibers available on the network, they could provide opportunities for our local power companies or other companies to create or expand their fiber related services in the Valley and reach many of the region’s underserved and unserved communities."

As it stands, the TVA lacks the authority to provide internet, and the TVA Act would need to be amended by Congress to allow the agency to provide broadband access, a move that Bredesen is advocating for.

Blackburn emphasizes role of grants

Blackburn, a Brentwood Republican who is chair of the House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, said turning to the TVA to help implement broadband in rural areas would raise taxes, discourage existing providers from serving those areas and hurt competition.

"It’s a big government overreaching approach," Blackburn said. "This is something that would put the federal government or government entity in charge of your internet. That is not something that anybody wants."

Instead, the focus should be on eliminating rules and regulations impeding expansion and on providing funding through grants to help private companies expand, she said. She would also like to see a greater emphasis on boosting adoption rates once residents gain access.

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While grants also are funded by taxpayers, they target areas most in need and encourage private investment, she said. She estimated a TVA role would cost taxpayers $1 billion, but did not elaborate on how she determined that sum.

Blackburn commended the new Tennessee Broadband Accessibility Act under Haslam, as well as the investments that private companies have made in recent years.

"We have made tremendous progress in expanding access, and we are so pleased that so many communities are seeing the benefits," Blackburn said. "Those out there in the community, these companies providing this service, they are expanding their footprint every single day."

Blackburn said progress is being made.

In 2016, the Federal Communications Commission reported 34 percent of households in rural Tennessee lacked access, compared to 23 percent in the 2018.

While the FCC data shows improvement, the way it is collected overstates connection, Frederick said. If any home in a census block has access, the census block is classified as having access, reducing the reports' overall accuracy. Meanwhile, greater speeds and bandwidth will be needed as more tasks are completed online.

"Our demand for applications and services online continues to increase exponentially," Frederick. "It's constantly a moving target."

When asked about the more significant rules and regulations she has targeted in the last 18 months, she pointed to 2018 legislation passed by Congress that dedicates $600 million to broadband grants and loans in rural areas nationally under a pilot program. Blackburn said she sponsored it, led negotiations on the bill and voted for it on the House floor, but voted against it when it became part of an omnibus bill because of concerns about national debt.

The same law requires the FCC to identify spectrum that can be dedicated to mobile and fixed broadband use and to streamline rights-of-way easements for providers. It also orders a study evaluating broadband availability through unlicensed spectrum and wireless networks in low-income neighborhoods.

Blackburn said she supports introduced legislation that creates a task force for studying broadband needs in the agricultural sector, as well as a separate act that holds workshops with communities needing access. Moving forward, Blackburn said she would like to focus on freeing up more spectrum to increase satellite and wireless options.

While Blackburn has emphasized deregulation, she has also fought to keep some Tennessee laws intact related to municipally-owned internet providers.

When Chattanooga's Electric Power Board, which has offered gigabit speed internet to Hamilton County residents since 2010, sought to expand beyond its electric footprint, the FCC granted its request in 2015. Blackburn responded with legislation to fight the FCC's approval. The state appealed the FCC's decision and won, blocking Chattanooga's expansion.

"The private sector is working to close this digital divide every single day," Blackburn said. "They are going to be able to close that divide much more quickly than a governmental entity."

Reach Jamie McGee at 615-259-8071 and on Twitter @JamieMcGee_.