“This is huge, and it’s targeted to where industries want to go,” said Bill Steiner, executive director of the Northwest Georgia Regional Commission that pulled together a coalition to apply.
Click to see the grant application summary.
The massive fiber optic build-out project will link partial network rings in 14 counties — including Floyd, Bartow, Gordon, Chattooga and Polk — to Atlanta and Chattanooga fiber hotels with global connections.
Click to see a network map.
Along the way, the new Appalachian Valley Fiber Network will pass through areas with little or no high-speed Internet service. Any provider will be able to tap into the open-access network to serve neighborhoods, local businesses and offices.
“Broadband and Internet technology is the superhighway of the 21st century,” said Jerry Shearin. “We’re building the interstate. The last-mile providers will build the on-ramps that offer connectivity.”
Shearin’s Bluestreak Cable and Parker FiberNet of Summerville are the private companies partnering with various government entities on the AVFN project.
David Parker put up his existing fiber network as the required 20-percent local match, and his firm will lay the 187 miles of new fiber.
Parker said the infrastructure will be an economic “shot in the arm” for the region because it connects the counties and offers redundancy — more pathways for data transmission.
“A big industry whose operation is heavily internet-based won’t even consider this region because they need the reliability of redundancy,” he said.
The individual counties also will be marketable as a region, he said, because their resources will be linked.
The grant terms give AVFN three years to complete the network, which will stem from Parker’s core network and data center in Rome and the existing fiber optic line along the railroad tracks paralleling U.S. 27.
The network will connect 185 anchor institutions, which Shearin said are community facilities such as a hospital or sheriff’s office “that are not going anywhere.”
In Floyd County, fiber cables will run directly to Richard B. Russell Regional Airport and several industrial parks. Towers in the new countywide emergency communications system also will be connected, creating a backup for the system and allowing the county to lease space on the towers to other entities.
“This is a tremendous win for Rome and Floyd County citizens,” County Commission Chairman Eddie Lumsden said.
Fiber connections also are planned for Bartow, Chattooga, Dade, Gordon, Haralson, Paulding, Polk and Walker counties and along the Interstate 20 corridor in Cleburne, Calhoun and Clay counties in Alabama.
Click to see a nationwide list of grantees.
Shearin said the unique public-private and dual-state application made the project attractive to the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration.
“Sometimes people hesitate to try something bold and creative like this, but they loved the team we put together,” he said.
Other application partners include Georgia Tech, the state of Alabama, the East Alabama Regional Planning and Development Commission — that state’s counterpart to the NWGRC — the Northwest Georgia Joint Development Authority, Trenton Telephone Co. and the nonprofit lobbying group Citizens for a Digital Future.
According to a White House press release:
The overall scope includes broadband projects that will create jobs and expand economic opportunities within 37 states.
These investments in high-speed Internet infrastructure will help bridge the technological divide in communities that are being left in the 20th century economy and support improvements in education, healthcare, and public safety. Today’s announcement, an investment totaling $1.8 billion, is part of a nearly $7 billion Recovery Act initiative.
“Today's investment in broadband technology will create jobs across the country and expand opportunities for millions of Americans and American companies. In addition to bringing 21st century infrastructure to underserved communities and rural areas, these investments will begin to harness the power of broadband to improve education, health care, and public safety,” said Vice President Biden. “The awards are another great example of how the Recovery Act is creating jobs upfront, while also building a foundation for sustainable job creation and global competitiveness.”
The projects receiving funds today are part of a program – administered by the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS) – to expand broadband access and adoption across the country.
“The broadband investments announced today are going to put people to work in the near term, but they also will lay the groundwork for sustainable economic growth down the road,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said. “These projects will connect Americans who have for too long been without the full economic, educational and social benefits of high-speed Internet access – access central to success in the 21st Century.”
“The broadband projects announced today will give rural Americans access to the tools they need to attract new businesses, jobs, health care and educational opportunities,” Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack said.
“The Obama Administration understands that bringing broadband to rural America provides a gateway for businesses and key anchor institutions – such as libraries, schools, public safety and community centers – to provide services to thousands of Americans. These projects will create jobs building these networks, and the completed systems will provide a platform for rural economic growth for years to come.”
Today’s announcement includes 66 grants awarded by the Commerce Department for projects to deploy broadband infrastructure and connect community anchor institutions to broadband, create and upgrade public computer centers, and encourage the sustainable adoption of broadband service.
It also includes 28 awards from USDA for broadband infrastructure and satellite projects that will provide rural residents in 16 states and Native American tribal areas access to improved service.
The Department of Commerce awards also contain grants for public safety broadband networks that will improve response times and communication at the scene of emergencies. These projects constitute a critical set of demonstration projects and a head start on President Obama’s commitment to support the development of a nationwide, interoperable public safety wireless broadband network.
According to an analysis released by the National Economic Council last year, overall Recovery Act investments in broadband are expected to create tens of thousands of jobs in the near term and expand economic development and job opportunities in communities that are being left behind in the new knowledge-based economy.
Recovery Act broadband projects help bring down the cost of private investment, attract Internet service providers to new areas, improve digital literacy among students and workers, and help create new opportunities in employment, education, and entrepreneurship by wiring homes and businesses. With new or increased broadband access, communities can compete on a level playing field to attract new businesses, schools can create distance learning opportunities, medical professionals can provide cost-efficient remote diagnoses and care, and business owners can expand the market for their products beyond their neighborhoods to better compete in the global economy.
Funding is contingent upon the recipient meeting the terms of the loan, grant or loan/grant agreement.
President Obama signed The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 into law on February 17, 2009. It is designed to jumpstart the nation’s economy, create or save millions of jobs, and put a down payment on addressing long-neglected challenges so that the country can thrive in the 21st century. The Act includes measures to modernize our nation’s infrastructure, enhance energy independence, expand educational opportunities, preserve and improve affordable health care, provide tax relief, and protect those in greatest need.
My girlfriend lives in Haralson County, and that backwards, hick county is extremely behind the times. Not only does the DSL coverage in that county suck, but a lot of the people in that county do not have access to it. AT&T only has three central offices, which means that everyone that lives at greater than around 18,000 feet(which is most of the county) from the central office, they do not get service. What is even more sad than the horrible voice and data equipment that AT&T has in Haralson County is the fact that my girlfriend works for AT&T and she cannot get DSL, so she can work from home, and AT&T does not have a tower that properly covers he with wireless service, either. She has to rely on Verizon and their wireless data(overpriced) to work from home.
It would be nice to see Verizon move into Georgia(as well as other states they are not operating in) and start laying fiber-optic cables for their FIOS service(which is infinitely better than anything Comcast, AT&T, or essentially anyone else can offer. Of course, Verizon is not really expanding their service, which is a rather bad business decision. I guess all that money both they and AT&T gets from the Universal Service Fee, I mean tax...I mean, fee, is not enough to help push either company to improve service. I mean, $2.5 billion(http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Not-Shocking-ATT-Verizon-Biggest-USF-Beneficiaries-109277?r=0.362788667940674) really is not enough money for the big corporations, is it?
Read the link and laugh, or cry, or whatever. It just makes you wonder why we, as taxpayers, need to fund big business's expansion interest.