Camden seeks Internet options By Cindy Beamon Staff Writer Monday, March 30, 2015
REPLY TO COMMENT CAMDEN — State Rep. Bob Steinburg, R-Chowan, said he will help Camden draft legislation to open up more options for Internet service in underserved areas of the county. Complaints about no Internet service or slow-speed service are leading Camden to explore alternatives, County Manager Mike Renshaw told Steinburg during the lawmaker’s meeting with county commissioners last week. “Expanding our broadband, we don’t we have a whole lot of control over the carriers that come,” said Renshaw. Commissioners asked Steinburg if the state is open to local governments becoming more involved in offering services, especially to customers without Internet. “Last-mile providers in northeastern North Carolina are putrid,” said Camden Commissioner Clayton Riggs. “We’re stuck in a rut. There’s no competition.” One Internet provider in the county said this week, however, that residents already have Internet options. Mediacom spokeswoman Phyllis Peters said most Camden residents have access to a choice of broadband providers, including cable, satellite, digital subscriber line and mobile wireless options. Mediacom is a top provider in the region because it offers uniform broadband width for “reliably fast speeds,” she said. However, commissioners and Steinburg both said Internet service in the region is lacking.
Steinburg said living in rural North Carolina has definite advantages, but residents have to put up with some inconveniences — Internet service being one. Current providers in Camden have no competition because most likely no other company thinks it’s worth the investment to provide service, he said. “I’m not taking shots at Mediacom, but whenever there’s no competition, that is not a good thing, in terms of pricing, in terms of service,” said Steinburg. Steinburg recounted problems he had with Internet service before offering to help Camden draft legislation allowing the county to provide Internet where there is none. Renshaw said he hasn’t explored the cost but is interested in seeing if the county could tap into fiber optic cable installed in late 2013 by Microelectronics Center of North Carolina. The $144 million MCNC project was designed to expand computer capabilities to schools, colleges and government buildings across the region and state. “I think there is opportunity for local government, municipalities and counties, in the event where carriers won’t provide the service for the ‘final mile’ that the county may step in and do that,” said Renshaw. MCNC is already providing Internet service to local and state government, including the cities of Nags Head and Kill Devil Hills, Pitt and Craven counties and many others, a MCNC official said Monday. “Through public/private partnerships, MCNC has developed a backbone network along with the necessary resources to work as a convener in Camden County and other areas of the state to bring unique, open access broadband solutions and services into this community,” said Jean Davis, MCNC president and CEO. “We are happy to work with existing and future connectors to our North Carolina Research and Education Network to identify and meet the broadband needs that are not currently being met to help advance economic development opportunities and innovation in this area.” Camden has no data on how many residents have no service or are underserved but is working to find out those things. The county is on standby after hearing in spring 2014 about technical advice available under the N.C. Broadband Technical Assistance Program, Renshaw said. The state Department of Commerce has also begun a BizConnect Broadband Pilot Grant to offset installation costs where current high-speed Internet is unavailable or insufficient to meet a business’s needs. Mediacom has no objection if county wants to extend service where it is not available, said Peters. “When the target is an unserved area, we’re fine with taxpayer-based initiatives,” she
said. The company does not favor a county duplicating existing infrastructure, however. “When governments choose to use taxpayer funds to compete in an area where private business has already invested significant private capital and currently delivers the service, we would not consider that to be a proper use of government involvement,” said Peters. The board’s request to Steinburg comes about a year after commissioners met with Dan Stuhr, Mediacom’s director of operations, to discuss the company’s plans to upgrade services. Some commissioners said then that they hoped the improvements would reduce the number of customer complaints they received. Riggs said Camden missed a chance to fill in service gaps about 10 years ago when it received a federal grant to install wireless Internet to residents. Outcry by residents at the time killed the idea, he recalled. Now state law makes it more difficult for cities and counties to offer government-run services. Three years ago, the North Carolina Legislature created so-called “level playing field” restrictions to keep local governments from undercutting private companies in offering Internet services. Wilson, one of the few counties in the state that offers Internet services to residents and businesses, filed a complaint asking the Federal Communications Commission to override those restrictions. The FCC in February approved Wilson’s petition to remove state restrictions that limited its ability to expand its broadband service.
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