Message from the general manager

WHAT ARE WE DOING ABOUT BROADBAND?

Increasingly, Washington Electric has heard from our members that there is a lack of broadband in much of our service area.

The term “broadband” itself is a topic of debate and is usually defined in terms of an available upload and download data speed when accessing the internet, such as 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload. For simplicity’s sake, we can think of broadband as being high-speed internet. Regardless of the definition, or what sources you consult regarding broadband coverage in our area, there is no question that many households and businesses do not today have access to reliable internet with speeds capable of allowing our members to work or attend school remotely.

The pandemic has made this even more painfully obvious as people have attempted to transition to online platforms. Broadband access has ceased to be a luxury; in fact, it’s an unquestionable staple for modern life, fostering economic development, promoting telehealth, advancing educational opportunities, affording remote work capability, and providing social connectivity.

Some of our members and area government officials have asked Washington Electric what we can do to help bring broadband internet to our area. Part of our mission statement is to “improve the quality of life for our members and community,” and broadband would undoubtedly do just that. To that end, Washington Electric has spent a considerable amount of effort over the past two years to study how we can be part of the solution to provide an easier, collaborative pathway for broadband deployment. Some of our efforts include the following.

• We have become much more educated on the various broadband technologies available and what it takes to provide retail broadband service.

• We have formed relationships with vendors, consultants, elected officials, economic development agencies, and existing telecommunications and internet service providers (ISPs).

• We have procured grant money to conduct studies and prepare business models.

• We have evaluated partnerships.

• We have sought and competed for funding to offer broadband.

While completing the above due diligence efforts, it has become apparent why ISPs have not yet built out infrastructure to serve certain areas of our system. Simply put, the potential revenue while charging a competitive rate does not support the required investment to build and maintain the types of facilities necessary to offer reliable broadband everywhere. I include the terms “reliable” and “everywhere” in this statement because wireless broadband technologies may at first glance appear to be a cost-effective solution, but our studies have shown that wireless internet cannot be reliably offered to all locations due to the terrain in some areas.

Regardless of the broadband technology, a certain amount of grant money and/or subsidies are required to make the business model work here. The amount needed depends largely on the terrain, density of households and businesses, and how many will subscribe to the service. As a not-for-profit memberowned cooperative, we are sensitive to the equity the membership has built up over our 80+ year history and unwilling to jeopardize the financial stability of your cooperative in a risky venture. To date, Washington Electric has not been successful in finding funding sufficient to develop an adequate business case for us to offer retail broadband service to our members. It is possible that future federal and state programs will create an opportunity, and we will continue to identify and evaluate anything that becomes available.

In the meantime, we have been considering ways we can help to bring broadband to our members without being the actual ISP. Electric cooperatives are well positioned to be partners with telecommunications providers to quickly deploy broadband to our members. We have the infrastructure (poles) needed by telecommunications providers to bring broadband to homes and businesses. In an ideal world, anyone would be able to add cable/phone/ fiber to a Washington Electric pole with no upfront work to accommodate this new attachment. In reality, it is necessary to complete an engineering review of any proposed attachment to make sure the existing pole has the strength to handle the new attachment and to make sure that adequate safety clearances can be maintained between the new attachment and our electric facilities and to the ground.

This review process and any work to make the pole ready to accept a new attachment is called “make-ready.” Providers applying to attach to our poles enjoy “at cost” access to our poles by simply paying up front for only the required makeready costs to make their attachment and then paying an annual rental fee that represents only their cost-based share of the pole and its continued maintenance.

Washington Electric applied for a grant earlier this year to complete the make-ready review and work on a portion of our system to encourage telecommunications providers to attach to these poles and offer retail broadband services to our members. In September, the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) awarded Washington Electric $1.5 million for its Noble County Grid Modernization and Make- Ready for Broadband Deployment project. The project will upgrade 215 miles of main-line electrical routes to increase grid resiliency and enable telecommunications providers to cost effectively deploy fiber broadband along these routes. Approximately 90% of the project will occur in southern Noble County, one of the most unserved areas in the state for broadband availability. The affected electrical distribution routes will also extend into adjacent areas of Morgan, Monroe, and Washington counties, reaching additional unserved or underserved areas. The upgraded routes will reach 1,392 of our members. This will be a significant benefit in terms of cost savings and a faster deployment to any telecommunication provider attaching facilities to these poles.

Washington Electric has also been in negotiations with Charter Communications (Spectrum) regarding a pole attachment agreement with the goals of expediting make-ready review and incentivizing extending broadband to our members in areas where broadband is not presently available. Charter was awarded federal funding through the Federal Communications Commission’s recent Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction to build out in a large portion of the Washington Electric service territory in Noble County and eastern Washington County. We urge our members to contact telecommunications companies like Charter that have been awarded funding to request deployment of broadband service in their area within the mandated implementation period. You can find contact information for the company that serves your area, as well as a link to easily contact your elected officials, at www.ohioec.org/ broadband.

Washington Electric remains committed to improving the quality of life for our members and community and will continue to stay involved with helping to bring broadband to our area. I will keep you informed of any major developments in these efforts.