Towns prepped for broadband grants

By Kevin O’Brien

With $1 billion in federal funding available for high-speed internet projects throughout Wisconsin, Marathon County officials are encouraging local townships to do what they can to attract attention to the needs of their residents.

At a Western Towns Association meeting last week, members of the county’s broadband task force spoke to a roomful of town officials about the upcoming application process for the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program, which is distributing over $42 billion nationwide for primarily rural communities to expand access to better web access.

Erin Andrews, the county’s broadband coordinator, said over 15,000 homes and businesses in the county are currently unserved or underserved when it comes to broadband internet, but county government is working with internet service providers (ISP) to reduce that number.

“Our ultimate goal is to get that number to zero,” she said.

Andrews said it’s “really expensive” to get fiber optic cables out to sparsely populated areas, so the government is providing private ISPs with financial incentives to expand their services beyond where they would normally go. Over the past few years, the county has worked with multiple ISPs to build broadband towers and run cable to areas with subpar internet coverage.

According to a map displayed at last week’s meeting, the areas targeted for potential BEADfunded projects include the towns of Bern, Halsey, Holton, Rietbrock, Rib Falls, Wien, Emmet, Spencer, McMillan, Day and Green Valley. These townships were originally supposed to be served by LTE Unlimited, but that company lost its funding after the Federal Communications Commission determined it did not have the resources to do the work. Two ISPs, Frontier Communications and Charter Communications, also recently applied for state funding to install high-speed internet in several western townships, but the applications fell just short of qualifying for money.

BEAD may be the last opportunity for the county to bring in outside money to pay for its broadband expansion efforts, so task force members are advising town officials on ways of boosting the applications submitted by ISPs to the Wisconsin Public Service Commission (PSC).

Andrews said townships can take a proactive approach by adopting a broadband ordinance, inviting ISPs to speak at monthly meetings and recording those discussions in minutes, and writing letters of support for the ISP’s funding applications.

The PSC recently opened a 30-day challenge period that will give local units of government a chance to verify broadband coverage maps that are supposed to show where high-speed internet is already available. In the past, county officials have said several areas in Marathon County are incorrectly labeled as having adequate internet, so they have been working on filing challenges.

By Aug. 6, the PSC will make a final determination on what areas are eligible for BEAD money, with the first round of grants to be distributed in 2025.

For information on broadband internet in Marathon County, go to www.marathoncounty. gov and click on Broadband High Speed Internet under Projects & Planning.

BROADBAND UPDATE - Gerry Klein, Marathon County’s IT director, goes over a map showing areas where high-speed internet access is being expanded and underserved areas that may be eligible for federal funding.

STAFF PHOTO/KEVIN O’BRIEN