Daily Newsletters
Account
Washington Evening Journal
111 North Marion Avenue
Washington, IA 52353
319-653-2191
Jefferson County Supervisors discuss rural internet service
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
FAIRFIELD – The Jefferson County Board of Supervisors had questions about internet coverage for the county’s rural residents when it met with Liberty Communications’ General Manager Andy Meader Monday morning, Jan. 5.
Meader appeared before the board to talk about the completion of a contract Jefferson County signed with Natel Broadband in September 2022 to provide broadband internet to 2,600 rural homes in the county. In 2023, Natel Broadband was purchased by Liberty Communications of West Liberty, which inherited the contract. The contract was for about $775,000, roughly $500,000 of which was for purchasing wireless equipment for towers and fiber optics. Money for the project came from the American Rescue Plan.
Supervisor Lee Dimmitt questioned whether this program was successful in delivering broadband internet to rural residents, and mentioned a few instances of people who previously had internet suddenly being unable to get it in the last year. Shawn Morrissey, the County Conservation Director who happened to be at the meeting for a different reason, piped up to say that he was one of the customers who had this exact problem. He said he had Natel for perhaps 10-15 years and was notified last summer that the service was no longer going to be available. He told Meader that his house was in a low spot in the county.
Meader said his company made every effort to reach all the residents of the county, and put up 20 towers. He said it’s rare that Liberty Communications can’t deliver service to a particular property, but it does happen on occasion. He mentioned the company had to reroute signals to serve customers around Libertyville after no longer being allowed to use a particular parcel, and it only had 30 days’ notice to find a new property. He also noted a further complication was a lack of documentation for several of the customers near Libertyville.
Meader said the company was still untangling the complicated web of arrangements the prior company had to deliver internet to some customers by routing the signal through other customers’ property.
“That is not the way we do business,” he said.
Supervisor Joe Ledger and Assistant County Attorney Ed Kelly asked Meader if he could provide a map showing what areas of the county the company can serve with its new broadband infrastructure. Meader said he didn’t have such a map to show them because a previous service used to do that, called Google Network Planner, went away.
Instead of voting to approve the project as final, the supervisors asked Meader if he could bring such a map to the next meeting on Monday, Jan. 12. Meader said he would try to get that map for next week’s meeting.
Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com
