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Funds awarded for high-speed internet project in Ferryville

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By Ted Pennekamp

 

Getting broadband, high-speed internet service to the unserved and underserved areas of Crawford County has been a concern for many years for residents and businesses.

In March, the Wisconsin Public Service Commission (PSC) awarded $28.4 million in state funds to help bring high-speed internet service to underserved areas throughout the state.

The latest grants will support projects in 39 counties and were the second round to be funded by the $48 million included in the 2019-2021 state biennial budget. The PSC  also awarded an additional $4.4 million left over from previous years.

According to the grant requests, there will be 58 projects to extend broadband internet to as many as 6,159 businesses and 106,000 homes, most of which currently do not have service available.

The PSC selected the projects from 124 applications it received in December of 2020 requesting a total of more than $62.6 million as part of the State Broadband Expansion Grants program. 

Ferryville project

One application in Crawford County that was recently awarded was for $172,900 for a fiber-optic project to be done by Vernon Communications Cooperative of Westby.

Fiber internet connections deliver faster download and upload speeds than DSL and cable, usually 250–1,000 Mbps. Cable and DSL deliver download speeds in the 25–500 Mbps range. However, cable and DSL upload speeds are normally much lower, in the 5–30 Mbps range. Fiber may be priced a bit higher, but the service is considered more reliable. 

Vernon Communications Chief Executive Officer and General Manager Rod Olson said  the project will be in the Eagle Mountain Subdivision that is part of the village of Ferryville. Olson said the project will involve fiber-to-the-home for all sites in the Eagle Mountain Subdivision.

“As of now, it will be started in spring of 2022 and finished by the middle of summer, unless things get moved up,” said Olson. The project likely will not get moved up, however, he said.

Olson said all current homes and businesses in the subdivision will be served, along with any future sites in the subdivision. Olson estimated there are currently 60-70 in the subdivision.

“We’re all very pleased about it,” said Ferryville Village President Steve Werner. “We have had citizens’ committees working very hard on this issue for probably about the past 20 years. We’re very happy that Vernon Communications has been awarded this grant.”

Werner said the area that will be served by the Vernon Communications project is currently served by DSL internet provided by Century Link. He said the current service only has an upload speed of about 5 Mbps. Werner also said, however, that Century Link will be making improvements for Ferryville this spring.

“We may have two internet providers,” said Werner, who noted the Vernon Communications project and the improvements by Century Link are sure to help businesses, homes and education for students who need high-speed internet.

“It seems to be coming to fruition,” said Werner. “We’re excited for these improvements to infrastructure and broadband. Everyone is going to be much happier than they have been.”

Werner said the new census figures aren’t known yet, but the signs at the entrances to Ferryville say it has a population of 178.

Rod Olson of Vernon Communications noted that there will be additional state and federal stimulus funding for rural broadband projects in the future. 

“There is a lot of money that has been allocated in state and federal programs for broadband but no procedures to distribute it yet,” Olson said.

The PSC has awarded $73.6 million in broadband grants over the past eight years, including $5.4 million of the state’s  approximate $2 billion in federal COVID relief funds given to the state late in 2020.

Governor Tony Evers has proposed allocating up to another $200 million for broadband projects in the next two-year state budget, with the money coming from the $2 billion in federal COVID relief funds. Republicans in the state legislature have said they would like to see up to $500 million for broadband projects in the next budget.

In addition, President Biden is proposing a $2.3 trillion infrastructure package, $100 billion of which will be devoted to getting all Americans connected to broadband internet.

It remains to be seen how much funding for broadband internet will be in Wisconsin’s next biennial budget, or how much of Biden’s infrastructure proposal will eventually be approved.

Internet providers have found rural broadband projects to not be feasible because of low population density. On several occasions, the Crawford County Board has discussed the rural broadband problem in the county, and there is an item on the board’s April 20 agenda for discussion about forming a special broadband committee. 

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