Rural Internet Speed Increases

When it comes to computers on the farm, the number in use has remained relatively steady. What has changed is the speed those computers access the Internet. In 2007, dialup was the most common method of accessing the Internet. Dialup access dropped from 47% in 2007 to 23% in 2009. Today 81% of farmers with sales and government payments of $250,000 or more have high-speed connections to the Internet, according to statistics recently released by the USDA in a Farm Computer Usage and Ownership Report.
DSL (digital subscriber loop) is the high-speed connection that has grown the most primarily because DSL provides digital data transmission over the wires of a local telephone network, which in many cases is the only way high-speed Internet can reach rural areas.
According to the report: “For crop farms, 65 percent have computer access and 40 percent use a computer for their farm business in 2009, up 1% and 3% from 2007, respectively. Internet access for crop farms has increased to 60 percent in 2009, compared with 56 percent in 2007. In 2009, a total of 63 percent livestock farms have computer access and 58 percent have Internet access. “
The report shows computer usage on farms has remained incremental, which demonstrates that most of the operations that don’t use computers are most likely not to implement them anytime soon. However, the massive increase in Internet speed on farm means those computers can be used for much more than ever dreamed of several years ago when dial-up was the major internet option.
Time spent navigating between sites has been greatly reduced, which means farmers are able to view more sites. Increased speed also means farms are more likely to conduct online transactions. Most importantly, increased Internet speed means more farms can stream video. The gap between computer and television continues to close, and as that gap narrows, the opportunity for ag-related companies to interact more directly with clients and potential clients increases.
— Ryan Wendland