STRONGER SIGNALS

STORY BY BETSY ILER & PHOTO BY AUDRA SPEARS

IIn the early days, Lake Martin’s attraction as an escape destination hinged, to some extent, on its remoteness and lack of technology. The lake was a place where the word ‘connection’ was synonymous with teaching the grandchildren to water ski and making s’mores around the fire pit – not cellphone reception and internet access. Today, the lake’s connectivity relates to advances in technology, as the global shift to Zoom meetings, school online and internet shopping makes fulltime lake life amenable for young, active families. With real estate sales breaking records in the lake area, new home developments and neighborhoods are on the fast track for moving dirt and breaking ground to create inventory to meet demand. The growing population at Lake Martin shops, works, learns, chats with friends and relatives, runs businesses and more through a Wi-Fi connection. In contrast to their parents who retired to a quiet life at the lake; busy, active families can live anywhere if they have a good internet connection.

While families hope to live the outdoors dream their parents had – boating, wake surfing, hiking and swimming at the lake – their lifestyles and livelihoods require a different picture inside. In addition to bedrooms, bathrooms, beautiful views and plenty of living space, they need high-speed internet to make their dreams come true.

Reliable internet service has been a government priority for several years, said Alabama State House Rep. Ed Oliver, who represents District 81, encompassing more than three quarters of Lake Martin’s 880 miles of shoreline. The biggest boon to highspeed internet at the lake in recent years has been the availability of federal money through reverse auction, he said.

“We are working with Tallapoosa River Electric Co-op and Central Alabama Electric Co-op in part-

nership with Point Broadband. Through a reverse auction, they made bids on census blocks and got money to build it out for broadband,” Oliver explained. “It’s just very simple. If you have internet, people will build a house there. If you don’t have internet, they will go someplace else and build a house there.”

Butch Brock of Point Broadband said fiber has been installed around much of the area on the lake’s southeast shoreline, and within two years, he expects that crews will be laying fiber down state Route 63 to neighborhoods on the west side of Lake Martin.

The lake area falls in what Brock called the middle miles of the grant coverage area, and additional funding for reliable internet in the lake area could come from commercial and residential development.

“We are working with Chad Odom at Lake Martin Area Economic Development Alliance, Alexander City Mayor “Woody” Baird, Alabama Power and Rep. Oliver and others on the opportunity zone in that area,” Brock said. “Alabama Power is talking about building out the fiber down state Route 63 for their own use, but in partnering with folks like us at Point Broadband and other internet service providers, especially in rural areas, they could be building for increased capacity.”

Developers and homeowners associations in the area also could invest in the project, and in doing so, could help to bring high-speed internet service to their neighborhoods, Brock added.

“There are some homeowners associations that have invested in it, where they have approached us. They want to be able to work from home and have kids schooling at home. They will make an investment in the home buildout, and when we design, we can show them what it’s going to take to get to the parcels. It’s a win-win partnership. They are making an investment. It increases the value of the lot to have high-speed internet available.”

The FCC was in search of companies that would accept a 10-year contract and money to go in and set up a broadband infrastructure with the knowledge that it would take two to six years to build-out that infrastructure or see a return on the project. This made it possible for rural areas, which might otherwise be less attractive to these companies from a profitability standpoint, to have high-speed reliable internet.

“Point Broadband purchased literally dozens of census tracts in east Alabama from Eufaula to just north of Piedmont. A major course of those tracks is in Tallapoosa County,” said Oliver. “The first step to make all of this possible was a bill that was passed last year that gave broadband companies a right of access where there is utility access already, and that paved the way and took years off of what it would take to get fiber optic cables assembled otherwise.”

For families building and buying at Lake Martin, it means better connectivity at every level.

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