Broadband group seeks school muscle
Elected officials in Northwest Georgia working to bring broadband to under-served parts of their counties decided Monday it’s time to bring the schools into the mix.
As classrooms are adding more technology — including the use of Google Chromebooks — many students still don’t have internet access at home.
“It’s a big issue, because the books are online,” said Polk County Commissioner Jennifer Hulsey, who also is a middle school teacher. “Polk schools are engaged (with the problem), but they don’t have a seat at the table.”
Members of the 15- county Northwest Georgia Regional Commission formed a rural broadband advisory committee this spring, noting that highspeed service is key to attracting industry and jobs. As they delved into the need, however, they determined access is becoming a necessity for all.
Small businesses, local entrepreneurs and people with home offices depend on the internet, said Haralson County Commission Chair Allen Poole, who chairs the committee. And, for residents, it’s a quality-of-life measure.
“Rural Georgia is going to be left behind if people like ourselves don’t take the initiative to move forward,” Poole said.
Meeting in the NWGRC headquarters in Rome on Tuesday, they agreed to contact the school superintendents in their counties and set up information sessions.
Plans are to join forces in urging state action during the 2018 Georgia General Assembly session.
“Politically speaking, schools should step up more than they’re doing in our area,” Bartow County Sole Commissioner Steve Taylor said. “When you talk about education and kids, things happen.”
President Donald Trump is promising some rural broadband funding in his infrastruc-
ture package, said Deana Perry with the regional commission, and state legislation that stalled this year is expected to be revived.
A major sticking point, however, is ROI — return on investment. For-profit internet providers are reluctant to extend fiber optic cable to areas with relatively few potential customers. That’s where the electric membership cooperatives could help.
Nonprofit EMCs were formed in the 1930s to bring electricity to underserved areas.
Bruce Abraham, senior broadband consultant for ECC Technologies, said if state law were clearer, EMCs could piggyback high-speed internet service on their grids.
Abraham did a study for Carroll EMC about leasing or selling some of the fiber it’s building to link its substations. The co-op serves Polk, Paulding, Haralson, Car- roll, Heard and Troup counties and has a test area in Floyd.
The board of directors is considering the move —although it would mainly be for anchor institutions such as governments and hospitals that want their own networks.
A service provider also could tap on to the “middle mile” fiber and run its own lines to homes and businesses.
“We don’t want to be a provider at this time, but we want to be part of the solution,” said Carroll EMC Chief Operating Officer Jerome Johnston.
Scott Dodd of North Georgia EM Cal so attended the session. The utility serves Catoosa, Chattooga, Floyd, Gordon, Murray, Walker and Whitfield counties. Dodd said he also looked into becoming a service provider, but determined it to be too expensive at this time.
Abraham said t hat could change as state and federal policies change. Meanwhile, EMCs also could help by collecting hard data from their members and promoting the potential customer base to providers.
Tennessee’s new broadband access legislation allows EMCs to get in the game, Perry said, and dedicates $45 million to an incentive program. And state Sen. Steve Gooch, R-Dahlonega, will try to move his Senate Bill 232, the Facilitating Internet Broadband Rural Expansion (FIBRE) Act, next year.
Also, the House Rural Development Council’s May meeting focused almost exclusively on expanding broadband access. Rep. Eddie Lumsden, R-Arm¬ uchee, is one of the 15 members tasked with finding ways to boost the economy in counties outside urban settings.
The council is holding meetings around t he state through the end of the year. The closest ones to Rome — focusing on workforce development — are in Ellijay on Aug. 15 and Dalton on Aug. 16.