County seeks to improve broadband internet access
By Steve Herring
Published in News on July 19, 2017 5:50 AM
Schools and businesses are driving Wayne County's need to for countywide high-speed internet.
Yet, some parts of the county, particularly in the Seven Springs and Grantham communities, there is no broadband.
Countywide high-speed internet has been a pet project for Wayne County Commission Chairman Bill Pate who noted that counties cannot operate cable television or internet systems.
"So this has to be done with a private company operating it using our assets by placing their antennas there," he said during the board's Tuesday meeting.
And making countywide broadband a reality is going to require a community effort, Commissioner Joe Daughtery said.
"What I want the public to basically understand and Wayne County to understand is that financially this project is not feasible for AT&T, Sprint or anyone else to come in and do this project and that is why we don't have it," Daughtery said.
"With that in mind I am encouraging everyone in Wayne County to recognize that we all need to kind of chip into this project and support this project as a community effort."
County Planner Chip Crumpler Tuesday updated the board no the county's effort to blanket the county with high-speed Internet.
The county initially worked with the N.C. Department of Commerce high-speed internet program, and a survey was put together in Spanish and English to gauge interest in having broadband in the county, Crumpler said.
The county used the results to create maps and met with Internet service providers.
The county had "great response" to the meeting, but received no service proposals, Crumpler said.
"After receiving no proposals we decided we would put out a request for interest," he said. "We did receive three proposals. Three companies proposed projects."
Open Broadband, the company selected, proposed a fixed wireless internet and recommended the county conduct an engineering study, Crumpler said.
Wireless Internet antennas would be placed on towers and possibly water tanks to provide the coverage, he said.
Open Broadband will conduct the study, he said.
"We are awaiting those results now," Crumpler said. "We should be getting those in in the next 45 days."
It would be a three-phase approach, he said.
The first would be a study of the county, its resources, what facilities are in place, what types of high-speed Internet are currently available, he said.
The company will evaluate wireless internet equipment and make recommendations, Crumpler said.
The second step would be for the company to establish a test area or the county could use the study to go out to other Internet providers and obtain their services, he said.
"It is our study to use as we wish," Crumpler said.
Implementing a pilot network program offering broadband service to a small list of initial users would demonstrate a system's capabilities before proceeding to phase 3 -- countywide deployment, he said.
"What you have to do is make a case study that in implementing that kind of technology it will be cost productive and that it will be something that we will be able to get enough customers to pay for," Crumpler said. "That is where we are. We should be within 45 days of receiving that engineering study back."
Commissioner Wayne Aycock said he would think there would be a need for sites all over county.
The county owns some towers that could be used, but it also rents space on towers owned by others, Aycock said.
"Would this play into us to looking at adding more county towers?" Aycock said. "A lot of towers space is being rented on now, the space has run out. If we enhance our 911 call center, and possibly add some other towers the county owns, would that probably help this program."
It would, Crumpler said. That is some of the things the engineering study will look at, he said.
Water towers are another feature the study will look at to utilize, Crumpler said.
The county already has approval from Wayne Water Districts to utilize some of its facilities, he said.
Of major concern is the shift toward electronic books and the need for broadband for students, Pate said.
Pate said he is hopeful the county will be able to use its existing towers and water towers so that the county will not have to build new towers.
Also, there are a number of businesses outside of municipal limits that need broadband in order to conduct business, Crumpler said.