(2/2024) Last year, Adams and Franklin Counties worked with a consultant, Design 9, to complete a study outlining the challenges and solutions to our lack of high speed internet. The full study is available at, www.adamscountypa.gov. The study outlined seven recommendations, which the county has been investigating over this year and will continue for work towards in the coming years.

The first recommendation was to manage expectations. Sort of a no brainer, as this is sound advice for any government project. That being said, our consultants were right. As the county investigates and confirms the findings of the study we are constantly asked, "when will I get broadband?". In our fast-paced world we often expect that once a problem is identified, so too will a solution. In this case the solutions are multifaceted and expensive. Broadband infrastructure is owned by private companies, is not a public regulated, and is expensive.

These issues make it important that government be very intentional with the partnerships we form and the projects that we fund. There is no amount of public money that will solve this problem. We must work with for-profit entities and use state and federal grants to get the job done. While many residents have concerns about their broadband speeds and reliability, the county must manage grant funds to serve the most unserved people that we can. Many of us will not see improvements in this first round of work, but as a community we will move forward.

The second recommendation was to evaluate our partnership with Franklin County. Since we had started this study with Franklin County this makes sense. As I mentioned, broadband is not a utility. This means that municipal, county, and state lines are meaningless. County staff and I agreed with this recommendation, but also felt that it didn’t go far enough. We should evaluate partnering with every county surrounding us, York, Cumberland, Franklin, Carroll, and Frederick. As the county looks for projects in areas of need that border another county, we will reach out to our neighbors. Since broadband doesn’t see boundaries, neither do we. If a project can be expanded with a neighbor, we will work to find cost effective ways to benefit our region.

The third recommendation was that Adams County cannot be an internet provider. The truth is we are not allowed to be internet providers. We can however work with other entities interesting in challenging the larger internet service providers (ISPs). While smaller providers and private networks are slowly being leveraged out of this space, we need to respect providers of all size and types. Traditionally, in America competition regulates pricing. In the case of broadband many areas, such as Adams County, are experiencing de facto monopolies. In my humble opinion this will continue until the industry is publicly regulated.

The fourth recommendation was for the county to seek every possible grant there is to address broadband. Due to the covid recovery funds and the infrastructure funds being release by the federal government there are multiple funding sources to address broadband concerns. From covid we learned that education, healthcare and work are susceptible to the impacts of a pandemic. While we hope to never experience another pandemic in our lifetimes, the silver lining is that covid highlighted a serious lack of broadband infrastructure in our rural communities.

Thankfully, based upon the latest economic data the recession predicted from this unprecedented expenditure of federal funds, have not materialized. What did happening is that businesses are growing again and they need this infrastructure. In a survey connected to our study, we found that 74% of county businesses expect that employees can work from home and 100% of businesses feel faster internet is critical to their next five years. The county must apply for every grant possible to ensure that residents, students, and businesses are positioned for success. We need expanded modern infrastructure to achieve this.

The fifth recommendation was to use fiber for long term solutions and wireless networks for short term. Fiber optic cable is the best way to transmit the most data, but fiber is expensive. This means that in very rural areas, wireless networks will be necessary. Think about that people who live down a quarter mile driveway. No ISP and few individuals can afford the $5,000+ to run fiber. And why bother, when a small-scale fixed pole wireless system can achieve a similar result. Until we get actual proposals for project, we do not know how much wireless will factor into the solution. We must keep our options open.

The sixth recommendation is to develop partnerships with internet service providers (ISPs) and wireless internet providers (WISPs). This recommendation is obvious. Since ISPs and WISPs, are the businesses providing the services and County government is forbidden from providing the service, we must partner with them. Not only does it make legal sense, it makes financial sense. Last year the county was prepared to apply for the broadband deployment grant to install fiber in rural communities.

At the same time Comcast was also applying for the same funds. Upon reviewing their application and ours, it was obvious that their application was better. Comcast already has subcontractors in place, own existing infrastructure, understand the permitting process, and their application served more unserved residents than the county’s application. As county commissioners our duty is to the taxpayers. Of course, we decided to forego our application in favor of supporting Comcast’s. We will continue to work with any ISP or WISP, who is willing to help the county provide broadband to our rural residents and businesses.

Lastly, we need to develop a county wide comprehensive broadband plan. Since the study was completed, the county has been engaged in educating and learning from residents and community groups. Our goal is simple, affordable high speed internet access for every business and household in Adams County. As we develop this plan, we will continue to reach out to anyone to learn more about how to best serve our county. If you have any interest in broadband expansion or in assisting the county, do not hesitate to reach out to me, mqually@adamscountypa.gov.