I’ve lived in Starkville for a little over three years now, and the city is actually starting to grow on me. Starkville has a Southern small-town charm-the kind of charm where people you’ve never seen before will wave, smile and say “How y’all doin’?” But still, Starkville lacks something I like to call progress. It is no secret that Mississippi is in the slow lane of the information highway. All around us, technology is booming-every week brings a new, faster, smaller digital camera, digital phones that can take and e-mail photographs, Blackberries and hand-held computers that make most people’s desktops obsolete. Cars can tell you that you’ve made a wrong turn. Technology grows better and cheaper every day.
So where does this leave Starkville? Still disconnected from the world outside the Golden Triangle. These days, technology affects almost every aspect of life: education, careers, recreation, health care and business. You name it, there’s software for it. Even in the face of technology all around Starkville, this town seems reluctant to progress with the rest of the world.
People joke that the best view of Starkville is in the rearview mirror. But herein lies the problem: People-our most valuable resources-are trying to get out, but who’s trying to get in? College students only stay for a few years. Visiting professors and teachers stick around long enough to gain experience before they get “real” jobs. Retirees, let’s face it, are not as likely as the younger generation to want technological advancement.
Some of these technological advancements (advancements to Starkville, not the rest of the world) include cellular and digital telephone services, digital cable and high-speed Internet access. Anyone with a cellular or digital phone can attest that service here is not great. Signals come and go as you drive around town, and conversations are hardly completed.
Digital services have finally migrated from telephone to television, and our local cable company provides digital cable to only parts of Starkville. The cable company seems to be taking its time upgrading the cable lines that should provide digital services to the rest of the city, but what takes so long? I would really like to know.
For over a year, the local cable company has claimed that it will soon provide cable modems for high-speed Internet access. I have called to get information about cable modems or to find out when the service will actually be available, and every time I call, the cable company tells me a later date at which I can expect service. At first, the cable modems should have been here in the winter of 2001. So I called in the winter of 2001 and was told that service would be available by summer 2002. In early summer 2002, they said late summer 2002, and now the cable company says cable modems will be here by the end of the year.
Well, I’m not holding my breath. I have even called the headquarters of the chain of cable companies to ask what is the delay. Unfortunately, they can’t help-a decision such as the availability of cable modems is up to the local branch.
But the problem lies not only with the cable company. The local telephone company may also provide digital subscriber lines-high-speed Internet access through telephone lines. However, DSL service is not readily available to the entire city either. For example, houses across the street from my house may have DSL, but DSL is not available on my side of the street. Supposedly, DSL is accessible only within a five-mile cable length from the central hub. I live less than one mile away from the central hub. The junction at which my line connects to the main line at the street is “bad” (that is the only explanation I got), and although the bad connection is replaceable, the phone company has not and will not replace it, never mind repeated requests.
Why has Starkville shied away from technology? Why don’t businesses that provide technology services capitalize on the student market? We are here (at least temporarily), we have money to spend and we want the services. There is lots of money to be made in technology. Starkville needs a change, something to attract people to the city for more than a few years. Making technology easily available for customers would be a good start.