Washington Co. hears broadband pitch

In an effort to build on the momentum of state funds, Fairfield company Natel Broadband has approached the Washington County Board of Supervisors about supplemental funding that would expand rural coverage in the county.

“Everybody’s really in need of broadband, today more than ever,” Natel Founder and President Mike Schill said. “I think a lot of the press about rural broadband has been made, but very little has actually happened … a lot of the area does not have full broadband but was not eligible for this grant for one reason or another.”

Schill said the platform would provide houses nearby wireless broadband, rather than taking the time and resources to lay fiber-optic cables to every home.

“This new platform we’re talking about will do near and non-line-of-sight capabilities,” he said. “It’ll go through trees, and maybe not a huge forest, but that way we can add service throughout the whole county, and that’s what we’re committed to.”

The project is estimated to cost around $390,000, but the state grant covers only about $152,000 since only certain blocks were eligible. Schill said aid from Jefferson, Henry and Washington counties could help make up some of that difference.

“All the cities in any of these maps are not covered by the grant program, but the beauty of the wireless solutions is we can cover that, we can serve customers throughout, we just can’t use the grant funds to provision those customers,” Schill said. “The benefit to the county is we’re covering all of that area.”

The towers wouldn’t cover all of Washington County, but Schill said it would serve an area that needed it most.

“It is covering an area of your county that’s probably one of the more difficult ones to get broadband to, the southern part of it,” he said. “It’s very cost effective … we would love to serve a portion of your county and hopefully in the future we could even expand that further.”

Without county aid, Schill said the project might not go through.

“To serve the areas outlined, it basically takes almost the same investment as it did when there were more census blocks included,” he said. “The amount we have to put in to build it is about the same … we do need the help of the counties to make it a reality, but I think it’s dollars well spent. It’s a very efficient program at a cost per subscriber, and rock solid 100 megabyte (service) out in the middle of the country was hard to accomplish until this platform came along.”

Supervisors, for their part, said they were open to the idea.

“There have been meetings and things that I’ve been involved with going back to 2015 regarding broadband expansion in rural areas,” Supervisor Jack Seward Jr. said. “This is by far the best news that I’ve heard since then.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com