Category: broadband

May. 3, 2012

The Garrett County Department of Economic Development released the “Broadband in Garrett County and Adoption” study on Tuesday and is now available online at garrettcounty.org.

The six-month long study is part of the county’s Economic Development Strategic Plan, which includes a goal to increase non-satellite broadband Internet availability to at least 90 percent of county residences by 2014.

“This study is an important tool for the county,” said Frank Shap, GC Department of Economic Development assistant director. “It gives us a roadmap for expanding broadband infrastructure, which we have long recognized as essential for economic development.”

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Led by Joanne Hovis, the study was conducted by CTC Communications Engineering & Analysis. She briefly reviewed the study for the commissioners during their public session on Tuesday morning.

“Broadband in Garrett County and Adoption” was based on a countywide survey of more than 1,600 residents, businesses, and farms, and cost $100,000, including $50,000 in Appalachian Regional Commission grant funding.

The study also determines the most productive methods for the county to leverage its portion of the $115 million federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act broadband grant that Maryland was awarded in September 2010. For Garrett County, the grant will fund approximately 50 miles of fiber backbone to connect major institutions such as schools, Garrett College, and government agencies.

Hovis suggested the county also invest $1.2 million to help 2,900 unserved residences connect to the “last mile” of the backbone through a wireless broadband system.

Hovis noted key findings of the study show that both broadband availability (supply) and use (demand) are high in Garrett County, compared with much of rural America, with broadband service available to about 65 percent of the county. However, broadband supply and demand still lag behind the nation’s metropolitan areas, Hovis noted.

The broadband study also found that:

• Garrett County faces many of the same broadband challenges as do other rural parts of the country, including large unserved remote areas, relatively little competition in population centers, and high pricing that prevents consumers from fully benefiting from the networks where they do exist.

“These challenges are of enormous importance in light of the county’s clear understanding of broadband availability to community and economic development,” the commissioners noted in press release.

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County to match $250,000 ARC funding for Internet connectivity

From Staff Reports Cumberland Times-News

— OAKLAND — U.S. Sens. Ben Cardin and Barbara A. Mikulski announced that the Garrett County Board of Commissioners has received a $250,000 grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission to expand broadband Internet connectivity in the county.

The commissioners will use the funding to deploy 50 miles of fiber to help connect county facilities, schools, community colleges, health facilities and libraries, according to the news release.

The ARC grant will help provide the electronics necessary to light the fiber and make it operational. Approximately 2.5 miles of new fiber and electronics will also be deployed to provide connectivity for an additional 14 sites, including schools and town halls.

The ARC grant will work in conjunction with the Broadband Technology and Opportunities Program grant awarded to the state of Maryland, according to the news release.

The One Maryland Broadband Network will construct a fiber network across the state to connect 1,000 community anchor institutions. Garrett County’s 50-mile fiber is part of the statewide network.

In addition to ARC funding, Garrett County will provide $250,000, bringing total project funding to $500,000, according to the news release. This grant helps encourage and leverage investments in telecommunications related economic development, which is one of ARC’s priorities for the region. The ARC is a federal-state partnership that works with the people of Appalachia to create opportunities for self-sustaining economic development and improved quality of life.

A six-month study of broadband in the county was recently completed by CTC Technology and Energy.

Joanne Hovis, president of CTC, presented the study to the commissioners on Tuesday and recommended that the county consider investing in the last mile of the wireless broadband network to enable service to approximately 2,900 unserved residences.

The cost of the investment would be $1.2 million, with 30 percent of subscribers utilizing the service, according to Hovis.

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Elaine Blaisdell Cumberland Times-News

— OAKLAND — A study on broadband communications infrastructure found Garrett County was well served compared to other rural communities because it has more infrastructure than many parts of the rural United States, said Joanne Hovis, president of CTC Technology and Energy.

The six-month broadband study was conducted by CTC and was based on a survey of more than 1,600 residents, businesses and farms, according to a news release.

Hovis said county broadband is not on par with the metro areas.

“We are pleased to know that our broadband efforts so far have been successful and are excited about the new strategies we have for bringing even more broadband to our residents,” said Chairman Jim Raley.

The study found that an estimated 78 percent of residents, farms and businesses currently pay for Internet services, according to Hovis. Of those 78 percent that use Internet 64 percent use broadband (DSL, cable, fiber). The adoption of broadband is somewhat lower in the agricultural community.

“There is a pretty real gap between 78 percent and 64 percent, who are still using dial up,” said Hovis. “The numbers show a high level of interest for broadband.”

Some of the challenges the county faces with broadband is large unserved remote areas, relatively little competition in population centers and high pricing that prevents consumers from fully benefiting from existing networks, according to a news release.

The study also found that local entrepreneurs and wireless carriers have led recent expansion of broadband options in the county.

The study follows the county’s 2011 Economic Development Strategic plan and determines the most productive methods for the county to leverage its portion of the $115 million federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act broadband grant that the state was awarded in 2010, according to the news release. The grant will fund approximately 50 miles of fiber backbone to connect major institutions such as schools, Garrett College and government agencies. The Strategic Plan’s goal is to increase non-satellite broadband Internet availability to at least 90 percent of the residents by 2014.

“This study is an important tool for the county,” said Frank Shap, assistant director of the Department of Economic Development in the news release. “It gives us a roadmap for expanding broadband infrastructure and use, which we have long recognized as essential for economic development.”

Hovis recommended that the county consider investing in the last mile of the wireless broadband network to enable service to approximately 2,900 unserved residences. The cost of the investment would be $1.2 million, with 30 percent of subscribers utilizing the service, according to Hovis.

Hovis also recommended that middle-mile infrastructure be expanded, wire line carrier expansion for the last mile be encouraged and cost-effective commodity bandwidth be facilitated for competitive providers.

Commodity bandwidth refers to the actual bandwidth used to transverse the Internet, according to Hovis. Other recommendations in-clude creating governance structures to manage county strategies, educate county residents about broadband and pursue funding opportunities such as Appalachian Regional Commission.

CTC Technology and Energy is a public sector engineering and business consulting firm.

To view the broadband study in its entirety, visit www.garrettcounty.org.

Contact Elaine Blaisdell at eblaisdell@times-news.com

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Matthew Bieniek Cumberland Times-News

CUMBERLAND — Broadband can create jobs and allow small businesses based anywhere to compete nationally and worldwide, said Joanne Hovis, president of Columbia Telecommunications Corp.

Broadband is “essential to our future prosperity,” Hovis said. Thin glass tubes, referred to as “fiber,” can carry an immense amount of digital data and have “theoretically unlimited capacity” constrained only by the speed of light, Hovis said.

“As a region, you represent astonishing buying power,” Hovis said. And better broadband access can bring new investment to Allegany and Garrett counties, she said. Hovis is heading up a comparable project in Garrett County.

Hovis spoke to the Allegany County Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Committee on Wednesday morning in the chamber’s board room.

Hovis is the consultant for Allegany County’s Broadband Feasibility Study funded by a grant agreement between the Appalachian Regional Commission and the Allegany County Board of Education, said Rebecca Rupert, the co-chair of the chamber committee.

Hovis’ company has been headquartered in Maryland since 1983 and works exclusively for local, state and federal governments and nonprofits.

While the study will focus first on the needs of the educational system, the study and obtaining increased broadband access in the area will benefit the business community as well, Hovis said.

There is a great deal of unused potential in broadband because of lack of information.

“I work for the board, but I am really working for all of you,” Hovis said. Education and economic development are like this, Hovis said, holding up two fingers tightly together.

Broadband is a new way of thinking about infrastructure, but needs to be thought of as just as important to the local economy as highway access.

“It’s a foundational utility of our economy,” she said.

The feasibility study should help facilitate coordination between the private and the public sectors, Hovis said. Allconet was “15 years ahead of everybody else,” Hovis said, and while times have changed, the idea was a visionary one, she said.

Broadband networks are hard to build and expensive, so public/private partnerships can be important in broadband development, Hovis said.

“There’s too little investment in broadband because there is too little return,” in rural areas, Hovis said. She was explaining the difficulty in getting providers to build broadband networks in rural communities. Broadband is the most important selling point in commercial real estate, Hovis said.

Just like rural electrification in the 1930s and the national highway system, it will take a leap of faith to spur investment, with the belief that it will make a major difference, Hovis said.

“The more stakeholders the better,” said Stu Czapski, the chamber’s executive director.

The study will include a survey of residents and businesses.

“I will ask about telecommuting, recovery services, downloading of manuals,” Hovis said. The survey had a 46 percent response rate in Garrett County, and she’s hoping for a similar response in Allegany County, Hovis said.

Hovis said she’s in the information-gathering stage of the study and is seeking input from anyone about the region’s broadband service and needs for the future. Her commission is to do an analysis of the gaps and opportunities in broadband access. The study will help to leverage grant money for better broadband in Allegany County, Hovis said.

Maryland received more than $115 million last fall through the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act to extend broadband access across the state, particularly in rural areas. The project is called One Maryland Broadband Network.

Hovis said her study will help Allegany County benefit from the state’s program. The 20 or so business leaders who packed the chamber boardroom all stressed the important of broadband access to their businesses in a discussion after the main portion of Hovis’ presentation. An ATK officer said his company is looking at projects like virtual engineering, so broadband is essential.

The target completion date for the study is June 1.

Contact Matthew Bieniek at mbieniek@times-news.com

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Buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland? Call Jay Ferguson of Railey Realty for all of your real estate needs! I take great pride in referrals, and I assure you, I will take great care of your friends, family & colleagues!