TOCCOA, Ga. — Duane Hartness said he had to fight for a service that millions of Georgians take for granted: decent internet.

With one provider available, the north Georgia insurance agent said he pushed until he had enough bandwidth through Windstream to work from his Tallulah Falls home.

“You can’t make them perform. You just have to keep trying,” he told lawmakers during a meeting on rural broadband held Thursday.

Many Georgians living in the rural parts of the state are not as fortunate, though.

A statewide survey showed, as of last year, about 84 percent of the state had access to the broadband internet, which the Federal Communications Commission defines as 25 megabits per second.

That left about 638,100 people without broadband.

Some FCC data paints a rosier picture, with a Georgia Chamber of Commerce representative referencing a map showing Georgia with 97 percent coverage.

Rep. Susan Holmes, R- Monticello, bristled at that estimate.

“We wouldn’t be doing this if we had that kind of coverage,” Holmes said after Thursday’s meeting.

Members of a legislative study committee will likely hear more stories similar to what Hartness experienced as they tour the state this fall.

Legislators were in Toccoa Thursday and will head to Glennville, located about 60 miles west of Savannah, on Sept. 29.

What they found in northeast Georgia was frustration among residents over slow speeds, inconsistent coverage and unreliable connections while many businesses, schools and others in community seem to enjoy adequate service.

“When you advertise broadband speeds of ‘up to three meg’ or ‘up to six meg’ and you what you get is close to zero, I think most of us become a little cynical about that phrase ‘up to,’” Hartness said. “I guess it does include zero.”

Holmes said addressing the problem will require action from the state.

“If the state doesn’t push this, it’s not going to happen, and if it doesn’t happen, shame on us,” Holmes said.

“I don’t mean regulate. I don’t mean fund. We’ve got to make it easier. We’ve got to push public-private partnerships,” she added.

She said she also wants the state to offer incentives to providers who are reticent to spend money in sparsely populated areas of the state.

After hearing from frustrated residents and community leaders, Sen. Steve Gooch, R-Dahlonega, who co-chairs the committee, sought to reassure service providers.

“We need the Windstreams, the AT&Ts, the Comcasts,” he said. “We’re not running anybody off. We’re trying to keep them here, keep their jobs here, but encourage more investment.”

One proposal is the elimination of a sales tax on telecommunications network equipment..

Others have recommended boosting coverage by restoring state funding for local public-private projects and doing more to hold companies accountable when their service is not as advertised.

Steve Fortmann, meanwhile, questioned what government can do and whether residents should even wait to find out.

The Royston resident said he was shocked when he discovered his family did not have high-speed service when they first moved from Atlanta a few years ago.

What he said he found instead was 1.5 megabits per second speeds, which was not fast enough to view the online videos needed for the family’s home-study program.

It certainly wasn’t fast enough to stream Netflix.

“I know, that’s not very important, but quality of life for your family is important,” he said. “Sometimes you just want to watch Curious George with your four-year-old.”

Fortmann started his own wireless company, Paladin, which serves 200 customers and has 600 people on a waiting list.

The company’s site says the business “was born out of necessity and exists to fill the gaps left by major service providers who don’t think our region is worth investing into.”

Fortmann said the solutions for coverage in rural Georgia already exist.

“You’re telling me getting internet a mile away isn’t feasible but we can shoot somebody into space? That’s a little crazy to me,” he said.

Jill Nolin covers the Georgia Statehouse for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Reach her at jnolin@cnhi.com.