WOODS, WATERS AND WILDLIFE

Electric cooperatives are likely to play a role in expansion of broadband service into rural areas because they own the poles and rights-of-way that already bring electricity to those areas. Many times, however, the current poles need to be upgraded to allow for additional burden and ground clearance required by fiber cables, which are connected below the electric lines on the pole at left in rural Delaware County.

Meanwhile, residents of rural areas often must travel to nearby towns to find a business that offers a Wi-Fi hot spot in order to conduct business, do online schoolwork, or participate in anything else that requires high-speed internet.

Continued from page 5 Studies at one Ohio co-op showed that the co-op could tackle the problem itself. Consolidated Cooperative, with offices in Delaware and Mount Gilead, has offered diversified services, including natural gas and propane along with electricity, for decades, and co-op management was able to lean on that experience in its ongoing efforts to bring retail broadband to its members. “There’s no doubt our experience providing other diversified businesses paved the way for the cooperative to provide retail broadband service,” says Consolidated CEO Phil Caskey. “There are clear rewards for our members who now have service and for all our members who now benefit from the robust communications system we’ve had for our electric system for the last 10 years.”

Co-ops get creative, collaborative

Other co-ops, however, have studied various solutions to mitigate some of the risk, and have determined their best solution is to secure strategic partnerships with telecommunications companies to bring broadband service to their members. Butler Rural Electric Cooperative, based in Oxford, has partnered with Cincinnati Bell to expand the Bell fiber network to coop members in Butler and Hamilton counties. “We’re fortunate to have a willing partner right next door who shared our goals,” says Butler CEO Tom Wolfenbarger. “We know that doesn’t exist everywhere.” Even if they’re not able to provide the service, most co-ops are doing other work to help pave the way for it. At North Western Electric Cooperative in Bryan, co-op crews are connecting all of the co-op’s electric substations with a loop of fiber optic line. For now, that line improves outage and other communications, but the co-op took the opportunity to install enough capacity in those lines to be ready for broadband expansion in the future. Most co-ops have at least explored possibilities and done the extensive research necessary to be able to make informed decisions about getting broadband to their members . “We know there is a need for service,” says Ed VanHoose, general manager of Wellington-based Lorain-Medina Rural Electric Cooperative and Attica-based North Central Electric Cooperative. “That’s why we will continue to investigate, evaluate, and review every avenue possible until our members have the same access that urban communities have had for years.”

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