Better internet for Huron County

NORWALK — State money will be used to improve broadband internet access in Huron County. About $12 million has been allocated to Huron County for new broadband expansion projects. The Huron County commissioners said this project will help about 5,000 households in the county. Spectrum and North Coast Wireless were awarded two grants to improve broadband in the area. Gov. Mike DeWine and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted announced BroadbandOhio awarded $232 million in grants to 11 internet service providers as a part of the Ohio Residential Broadband Expansion Grant Program. The funding will be used in 33 broadband expansion projects impacting 31 counties in the state. Commissioner Terry Boose said commissioner Skip Wilde and Huron County IT specialist Joel Riedy were instrumental in helping bring this project to the county. Of Huron County's nearly 23,000 households, the two grants will improve internet in a big portion of the county. The focus will be in the Willard and Greenwich areas. "We've set aside money in the budget for internet infrastructure, and then we have the federal (American Rescue Plan Act) money that we also have for internet infrastructure," Boose said. "So that $12 million is just the beginning, but it's huge." Riedy said Huron County received some of the most funding through the grant program. Riedy said North Coast is "taking advantage of dark fiber that is already in place in several key points" and using it to branch off with more fiber. Wilde said this is more cost-efficient. "Depending on where towers are located, they could possibly feed wireless towers with fiber feed," Riedy said. "If there's not a sufficient feed available, they use a combination of microwave links and they can bounce it off of other sites." The backend of any wireless connection is going to transition to fiber, Riedy said. Spectrum was awarded over $10 million for broadband projects in Huron County. The Spectrum project will impact 4,619 households. Upon completion of the proposed project build, residents in Huron County will have access to Spectrum Internet Gig service with speeds of up to one-gigabit download and 500 megabits upload. Utilizing Fiber-to-the-Premises technology, Spectrum is able to scale this project to support future growth to support consumer and data demands. North Coast Wireless was also awarded over $1 million for Huron County. The project will impact 324 households and will increase access to broadband services, with speeds of up to one-gigabit download and one-gigabit upload. North Coast is also using Fiber-to-the-Premises technology and can scale this project to support future growth and customer needs and data demands. Fiber-to-the-Premises is the equipment used for fiber access deployments where they extend to the end-user premise and is designed and optimized for residential uses. All projects through these grants will provide service access of at least 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload to residents in areas that currently do not have a provider that can supply service at this speed. The average construction time for the new broadband projects is two years, with some areas expected to receive improved internet access in a year. Currently, the state estimates about 1 million Ohioans lack access to broadband internet. "High-speed internet is no longer a luxury — it's a critical necessity for everything from school to work to health care," DeWine said. "We must end the digital divide in our state and by giving our rural and underserved areas access to affordable and reliable high-speed internet, we will enhance economic growth in these communities and bring about new opportunities for residents."