By: Maddy Lauria
Delaware News Journal
06/26/2018

Correction: This story has been updated to clarify how the $1.2 million for broadband expansion will be used.

Beyond the beaches with their Wi-Fi-laden hotels, fast food restaurants and fancy coffee shops, it can often be challenging to find a reliable internet connection in Sussex County.

Just ask the students who have to head to McDonald’s to do their homework, or the farmers who cannot remotely monitor their plants or livestock because of poor connectivity.

“Even though you would like, eventually, everyone to have a cable to their house, ultimately there are kids and businesses that really need access, and a wireless solution can do it,” said Troy Mix, a policy scientist at the University of Delaware’s Institute for Public Administration.

After years of studies and conversations about the problem, Sussex County officials are investing in a pilot program that aims to bring wireless internet to those pockets of Delaware where Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime once seemed as distant as space travel.

“Delaware is better positioned than most states compared to really rural places like South Dakota or North Dakota, but there are still pockets — especially in southern Delaware — where there’s no opportunity for connecting to anything beyond DSL speeds,” Mix said.

Mix worked with the Sussex Broadband initiative that started examining those gaps nearly a decade ago. While he said that group cannot claim credit for the push for better broadband in Sussex, he said the group definitely got the conversation rolling.

“It’s a long, hard slog,” he said. “As it becomes more of our everyday life, people are more interested in making sure their communities have the highest and best service available. But the market is just not quite there in terms of private companies providing that level of service.”

During a unanimous approval of the county’s upcoming fiscal year 2019 budget, officials set aside $1.2 million of the county’s total $177 million budget to expand broadband infrastructure in rural parts of Sussex County by adding new towers.

Future plans include offsetting the costs of leasing space on existing communications towers so local companies can offer broadband internet in places of need. The county has earmarked $192,000 to subsidize rental costs on state-owned towers, and will also provide space on county-owned towers, for up to two years as networks are expanded in places such as Bridgeville, Dagsboro, Georgetown, Greenwood, Gumboro, Laurel, Lincoln, Long Neck, Roxana and Seaford.

One of those companies, Salisbury-based network provider Bloosurf, is already up and running in Seaford, where about three dozen customers on the outskirts of town now have a new option for internet.

With wireless plans starting at $55 per month, installing equipment needed for wireless internet access is far more affordable than the $20,000 per mile price tag that comes with installing fiber optic cables, said operations manager Neil Stegman.

“For a lot of people, that’s just not going to come. It just isn’t in the cards,” Stegman said. But wireless, he said, “is definitely the way of the future for a lot of people who don’t live in an urban area.”

From students required to do homework or research online to businesses to farmers who need to wirelessly operate their combines, the only way to change the game are public/private partnerships like this, Stegman said.

“There’s a reason the bigger guys are not there and it’s because it doesn’t really make sense from a business standpoint,” he said. “It’s more of a public interest type of project. And that’s kind of what we already do in Worcester, Wicomico and Somerset (Maryland) counties. We’re what’s known as a ‘last mile provider.’”

This is Bloosurf’s first foray into Delaware, Stegman said, with additional First State expansions in the works. Three other vendors — BridgeMaxx, Nuvisions/Broad Valleyand Delmarva VoIP/Conxx — also have signed on to the county’s new program.

“Not only will this expand the offerings for consumers in the marketplace, and help to serve what we call ‘desert areas,’ but it will create a more competitive atmosphere among all Internet providers, one that hopefully prompts them to invest and expand their networks,” said Sussex County Information Technology Director Dwayne Kilgo in a press release. “In the end, that could mean even higher speeds, lower prices and better service — all wins for the consumer.”

For more, go to sussexcountyde.gov/broadband.

Click here to read the original post in Delaware News Journal.