Henry County looks to improve internet access

MT. PLEASANT — More than half of Henry County has internet speeds slower than 50 megabits per second.

The county’s problem with slow connectivity is highlighted on a map showing broadcast connectivity in the state.

The Henry County Board of Supervisors wants to improve that. Tuesday the board invited representatives from telecom carriers to offer suggestions for using $3 million in federal funds to improve the situation.

Speeds of 100 mbps to a gigabyte per second are considered the baseline for adequate broadband coverage, more than twice what much of the county has available.

Luis Roth, a teacher and community advocate, came to the supervisor’s meeting on Tuesday morning to help educate the supervisor’s on the issue of connectivity with local schools and remote learning.

With the rising use of Wi-Fi connected devices such as streaming movies and music and the trend of working from home, internet providers are seeing more and more traffic meaning that the use and need for broadband connectivity is getting greater and the need more dire.

Roth said that lack of broadband access for some kids can result in apathy in remote schoolwork and lead to students not turning assignments and poor grades. This leads to more complications in having a fair and accessible classroom.

“Adding that extra barrier makes it hard to have a functioning classroom,” Roth said. “When you have kids that already don’t want to go to school it’s hard for them to get on their computer and deal with extra steps.”

The county is planning to extend fiber-optic cables to homes across the rural part of the county to increase internet speeds to at least 100 megabits per second as required by the American Rescue Plan, also known as COVID-19 stimulus funds.

The county is looking to help the telecom companies expand current and future projects to help get internet to home’s across the county.

The undertaking of such a project is costly, so costly that it is likely not going to be fully funded by the county. According to the telecom reps, the county’s funding is one of three funding sources available for increasing broadband access.

The projects are costly because just digging the trenches for the fiber-optic cables can cost up to $35,000 dollars or more for a one mile stretch. This along with the costs of the fiber optics and technology can cost quite a bit for the carriers.

In rural areas it can be even more costly and have less return on the investment due to the distance between houses with only one customer being served for miles. This makes putting fiber optics in some places cost more than it’s worth to the telecom companies.

The project looks at installing fiber-optic cables in the ground all around the county to “future-proof” the project to ensure that broadband availability doesn’t change over time. Fixed-wireless towers likely aren’t fit for the project since they rely on line-of-sight to operate.

These fiber-optic cables are future proof because unlike the old copper cables they can upgrade the electronics and technology around the fiber optics to increase the speeds as technology advances.

The issue of broadband access was highlighted in 2020 as people began working from home while students attended school remotely over video connections.