Auburn Development Council applauds broadband grant

AUBURN - The Nebraska Public Service Commission announced Tuesday nearly $18 million in grants from the Nebraska Broadband Bridge Program, which includes a provider in southeast Nebraska.

The Auburn Development Council says a $1 million grant to Pinpoint Communications bolsters a $2 million project to install fiber cable north along Highway 75 and connect with lines in Otoe County.

Currently, a single fiber connection out of Tecumseh serves the area, but the ADC says data shows that many households in Nemaha County are underserved or internet providers are not providing the speeds they are selling.

Pinpoint, along with the ADC, Lead for Nebraska Fellows and Southeast Nebraska Development District, is collecting speed testing data.

The ADC says residents are getting 12.19 m/b download and 10.86 upload.

ADC: “In other words, our residents do not have access to high-speed internet.”

Pinpoint is expected to offer a minimum of 50/50 m/b.

The ADC encourages residents to test their internet speeds at www.nebraskaspeedtest.org.

ADC: “Our goal is for every home to be served in Nemaha County. Plans for further expansion and funding in 2022 are not yet identified, but we hope to work with town and county officials to determine the best course of action to meet our goal.”

Here is a post on the ADC blog

 

Good afternoon and welcome!

Let’s dive right in– why is broadband important for rural Nebraska? Rural America is currently experiencing what’s known as a ‘digital divide’, which basically means that our urban counterparts are outpacing broadband deployment compared to those of us in rural areas. They are getting faster, better internet before us and it’s hindering our economy. If we want to grow our current businesses, create new job opportunities, or recruit young families and new businesses, the availability of fast, reliable fiber internet will play a huge part in that. Don’t believe me? Ask any young person if they’d move somewhere with unreliable or slow internet access. We’ve got to even the playing ground if we don’t want to be left further behind.

Think back to when electricity was being wired across the country. It took government programs to help usher this expansion because the cost was too great for towns to bear on their own. Unlike electricity in Nebraska, which has an excellent model for public utilities, broadband as a public utility faces several hurdles in the state that were set up when broadband was initially being implemented in the early 2000s.  The main hurdle is that municipalities would have to pay about 50% of their revenues into a state fund, which doesn’t make it a very lucrative endeavor and is why it isn’t happening in communities. Unless those rules change, public-private partnerships are the way forward.

Well, what do we do? In my next blog, I’ll go into more detail about how current Internet Service Providers (ISPs) take advantage of the current rules, what positive things are being done in our state, and how we can make broadband expansion happen to every home in Nebraska!

I hope you have a happy & healthy holiday season—Cheers!