Does local matter to

don’t understand and aren’t fully invested in, with ultimately unpredictable results.

“One really has to play the long game of asking, ‘What comes next after ARPA funding?’ ‘What comes next after ROBIN?’ ‘What comes next after BEAD?’” Varenhorst said. “Being able to capitalize on and leverage those successes into the next chain of successes is necessary, because until you start getting a number in tens of millions of dollars, you’re not really getting a lot of people connected very quickly.”

Varenhorst’s worry is twofold. First, that funding from ARPA and other programs will “come and go” and will ultimately not be enough to be more than “a drop in the bucket” in the fight to bring broadband to all of rural America. And second, that outof-region or out-of-state broadband companies will come into areas like northern Michigan, “spend grant funding when they can get it,” and then pick up and leave when the funding dries up.

“I worry they will not do any form of investment in an area short of (what they can get grants for),” Varenhorst said of non-local providers. “And then that still leaves a lot of people waiting for infrastructure.”

Nonetheless, Varenhorst says he will continue chipping away at the block.

“That’s the role we play, in that where we live is where we operate,” Varenhorst continued. “It’s where we provide coverage, and it’s where we’re constantly working on building infrastructure and getting coverage out there day in and day out. And that’s usually out of our own pocket.”

According to Scott Menhart, who serves as chief information and technology officer for TCLP, the utility has a similar mindset to Varenhorst and Eclipse Communications about “chipping away” at northern Michigan’s fiber service gaps. Menhart said that, while TCLP is currently focused on finishing out its two-phase fiber buildout in the City of Traverse City, the organization is also toying with the idea of pushing beyond city limits to bring fiber to other Grand Traverse County neighborhoods and townships that don’t have it yet.

“We don’t want to stop (with the fiber network) just because our electric footprint stops,” Menhart explained, noting that TCLP isn’t bound by the same geographic boundaries as a telecommunications provider as it is in its capacity as an electric company.

Menhart says since the infrastructure is already in pace, it makes sense to keep going.

“We’re all about trying to play fair and equal for everybody, and bridging that digital divide is a big goal of ours – for everyone, not just people who live within our electrical service territory,” he said.

While local players may be inherently more invested in the region, there is also reason to expect that Point Broadband, the Alabama-based telecommunications company that Leelanau County hired to build out its fiber infrastructure, is in it for the long haul.

The county pitched in $5 million for the project (including the $3.2 million in ARPA funds), but Point Broadband has pledged to foot the bill for the other $12.4 million of the project’s estimated $17.4 million capital cost – “plus another $10 million in ongoing operational, customer support, and network expenses over the coming years.”

“(Point Broadband) has two big benefits to being able to do this,” Scharrer previously told TCBN sister publication the Leelanau Ticker. “One is they’re going to be serving a community of 3,100 homes that have nothing right now (in terms of broadband internet service).”

With its contract, Scharrer says that Point Broadband can expect a 70-80% take rate, meaning 70-80% of those homes will sign up for service.

The other part of the reason they’re investing, Scharrer says, is that Point Broadband is also planning on eventually building some of the higher-density areas in the southern townships – including Bingham, Elmwood, and Suttons Bay.

“There’s existing Charter service, but Point Broadband will be able to start offering competitive services there,” he said. “The take rate will be lower in those areas, but there’s an established clientele, some of whom are looking for alternatives to Charter right now.”