Stimulus funds could enhance broadband access for all

By CARL E. FEATHER - Staff Writer - cfeather@starbeacon.com

JEFFERSON — More than $2 million of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) money could be made available to Ashtabula County to provide and extend broadband service.

That estimate is from Dave Davidson, Northeast Region field director for Connect Ohio, a statewide effort to expand broadband Internet access. Connect Ohio is holding countywide meetings across the state with broadband stakeholders in an effort to identify needs in a variety of sectors. Davidson held his second meeting in the county on Wednesday.

The meeting was attended by Internet service providers, as well as representatives from government, law enforcement, libraries, education, tourism and health care.

“I’m very pleased with the turnout,” Davidson said. Some sectors also provided information through the project’s Web site (www.connectohio. org).

The purpose of Wednesday’s meeting was to have each participant complete a benchmarking tool for each sector. A leader from each sector gave a presentation to the group and engaged in conversations about their specific broadband needs.

“Between now and the next week to 10 days, I’ll summarize their feedback,” said Davidson. “I’m going to take all the information, compile it and start to look at what some of the key broadband projects could be in the county.”

Davidson said ARRA includes $7.2 billion for broadband, $4.7 billion of which will be administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), and the balance by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The lion’s share of the money is to be used for infrastructure in unserved and underserved areas. Davidson said Ashtabula County’s rural nature and its pockets without broadband service should make it a candidate for that money. Providers would use that money to extend broadband into areas that otherwise would be unprofitable to serve. Broadband is defined as service with throughput exceeding 768 kilobits per second.

There is also $250 million available nationwide for innovative programs to drive broadband adoption. Again, Ashtabula County could be a good candidate because it lags behind the state in broadband adoption. Only 49 percent of homes in the county have broadband, while 55 percent in Ohio are connected.

A survey of Ohio residents who do not subscribe to home broadband service showed that, both statewide and locally, 51 percent of them felt they do not need it or don’t understand its benefit. Fifteen percent of Ashtabula County residents said it was not available in their area.

ARRA also has $200 million for community technology centers. That’s a concept that Geneva Area City Schools is wrestling with for its new buildings, said Brett Horvath, assistant superintendent. The district would like to open its computer labs to after-school public use to fulfill its mission as a community learning center, but there are issues.

“The fear we have to overcome is what are they going to do to our computers,” he told the group.

Horvath pointed out that the schools receive a lot of use for sporting events after hours, and it would be ideal if parents stayed in a computer lab at the school while their youngsters participated in those activities.

Libraries are seeing increased use of their computers as the economy sinks and people sign up for jobless benefits and conduct job searches online. Bill Tokarczyk, director of the Ashtabula County District Library, says the T-1 line used by the county’s nine libraries can’t handle the volume being forced through it, but the state pays for most of the lines, so they limp along.

“The demand on our computers is so tight right now we need to expand the number of terminals plus the speed of our computers,” he said. The problem is expected to get worse as videos and other data-intensive materials are accessed by patrons.

A more robust data pipeline, specifically fiberoptic, is on the wish list of many who attended, and for large users, help may be on the way. Rich Dugger of One Community, a nonprofit group from Cleveland, said the organization is looking to expand its fiberoptic network to Ashtabula County’s health care institutions.

David Jacobs, ACMC’s information technology director, said that institution is in a three-year project to upgrade its broadband service so that patient records, X-rays and other medical data can be delivered electronically. That’s only half of the formula, however. Doctors offices and patients also will need to have broadband services to access the information.

“That is the challenge of the hospital, and it’s the challenge of the community,” he said. “The number needs to go up from 46 percent.”

Davidson said home users don’t fiberoptic for their Internet line, but libraries, government and medical facilities do need the larger bandwidth.

Connect Ohio’s next meeting in the county is 9 a.m. June 10 in the commissioners’ meeting room of the old Ashtabula County Courthouse. For more information or to complete a sector benchmark assessment, go online to www.connectohio.org.

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