Tom Springer is an advocate for rural broadband internet. As a self-employed consultant who lives in the countryside and already works from home, and who has had to share his home’s internet capacity during the COVID-19 shutdown, he knows how important a good connection can be for functional homes and businesses. As a Park Township trustee, he has a place to advocate for improvement.
Although some rural users still use dial-up connections, the rapid rise of social media, online work and meeting platforms, cloud-based document sharing, and other technologies has made higher-speed connections a necessity for many people who regularly or even occasionally transact business or conduct their work from home.
“When you get parents trying to work from home and kids trying to study from home, and all the information we need, we try to access at home, with the slow speeds we have, I’ll try to go on Zoom calls, and I’ll be the guy who has to, you know, go off, turn this camera off and just call it on the phone,” Springer said.
“Or I will — my wife works remotely from her office in downtown Kalamazoo — and she’ll be trying to access something and I’ll be trying to watch a video for work and my kids are trying to do the same thing. It’s gone from being an inconvenience, I think, to a real hindrance.”
“We transact business and get all our information online. It’s not just about entertainment anymore. You take that digital divide that we have between people that have access, and people who don’t, it really pulls down the whole township or county that we don’t have that (broadband access).”
Tom SPRINGER, PARK TOWNSHIP TRUSTEE
Broadband internet currently comes via any of five possible transmission methods.
Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) uses existing, unused telephone wires. Connection speeds usually vary considerably with distance from the source of the signal.
Cable internet is provided by cable television services using the same transmission cables. Its biggest drawback is that greater demand slows down individual connections, because subscribers in a particular area usually share capacity, or “bandwidth.” DSL and cable are the two most common transmission methods in rural areas and are thus usually the most competitively priced.
Satellite is the slowest, and although it can be expensive to set up, its monthly user costs are usually comparable to DSL and cable. Tower-to-tower wireless connections can be very effective and comparatively inexpensive, but require a direct line of sight in order to work, so areas with trees or hills can be problematic.
Like satellite, fiber optic line can be priced comparably to cable and DSL once available, but the installation costs are high, and in sparsely populated areas, most large service providers have often calculated that the customer base is not large enough to generate the return on investment that would justify the expense of installing the lines. However, fiber is the fastest, highest-capacity, and most reliable connection technology to date.
Dave Allen is vice president for regulatory and gas operations at Midwest Energy & Communications (MEC), a member-owned cooperative based in Cassopolis.
“We have for years and years and years grappled with substandard technologies that in this day and age do not make sense,” Allen said. “I think as a state, as a country, we need to strive for the best possible network that’s out there. And that’s fiber optic. In all honesty, that’s the reasonably future proof technology. It allows you to do all the things that you need to do.”
Park Township represents the kind of place that makes fiber a difficult investment. It covers a 35.7 square mile area that includes Parkville, Moore Park, and most of Fisher Lake. US-131 and the parallel railroad line pass through the township near its western edge. The township’s northern border is also St. Joseph County’s boundary with Kalamazoo County. It also shares borders with Flowerfield Township to the west, Mendon Township to the east, and Lockport Township to the south. It is 1.3 miles north of Three Rivers’ northern tip.
Park Township’s population is about 2,600 people, with an average density of about 73 people per square mile. Most of the density is actually lower, since most of the population is concentrated around the two villages and the lake. There is also a small concentration of commercial property and a few residences along US-131 north of Marcellus Road.
Recently, Springer has led conversations with fellow township leaders and MEC representatives to explore the logistics and costs that would be involved in bringing high-speed broadband internet to the township. MEC has become a national pioneer in bringing broadband technology to rural areas. Bob Sills, a Three Rivers consultant who installs telephone and network systems in different facilities, described some of the history of rural broadband development in St. Joseph County to Watershed Voice.
Roughly between 2011 and 2013, Sills was involved with the Three Rivers Area Chamber of Commerce and was part of an ad-hoc committee with its director, Christy Trammell, and a few others that included Allen.
“Our obstacle was nothing other than money,” Sills said. “How do you get money? Dave Allen went to Washington, DC representing their rural co-op, and worked with the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) and the Department of Agriculture. He brought home I don’t know how many millions back to Midwest Energy.”
That funding allowed MEC to test technologies and begin installing fiber optic lines along its power pole routes. Growth since then has been significant according to Allen and MEC President & CEO Bob Hance.
“We kind of started this whole process about seven or eight years ago, looking at fiber optic and how we can play a larger role in providing service to rural areas where that service hadn’t existed before,” Allen said. “Five year ago, the board gave us a directive to build out a system to our membership, and in five short years we’ve added 13,000 subscribers to a fiber optic system that provides up to a gigabit of symmetrical services.”
Allen continued, “It’s been fantastic, and I can tell you with the pandemic and folks being at home due to the stay at home order, we have really learned the value of a good connection, so I suspect demand is going to continue to increase because where they thought maybe that 10-three service or their DSL line or whatever was sufficient, once they had the entire family in the home, doing homework, watching Netflix, you know, doing work, they needed a better connection.
“So, if nothing else, this pandemic has really kind of hit home the fact that they need better connections than what they’ve had in the past,” Allen said, noting that internet service has been critical to business, schoolwork, and telemedicine during the pandemic. “Fiber optic, of course, has the best value out there for being able to do all the things you need to do from home.”
“Just say from a logical standpoint, when you come home and flip the switch, you expect that light bulb to turn on and I think it’s got to be the same way with a good data connection at home. We take very seriously the need to get out to rural areas and provide some sort of solution out there where others don’t exist.”
Dave Allen, Midwest Energy & Communications (MEC)
Allen and Hance have seen an increase in demand since the pandemic began. “There are townships across the state of Michigan that have been reaching out,” Allen said. “(It’s) a real challenge because Tom (Springer is) not the only one out there. You’ve got others kind of asking for the same level of service. I know the State of Michigan is taking a fresh look at this. There are other programs and services that are trying to help. The demand is there, the need is definitely there. What are the options for townships like Park Township to get a get a good fiber network installed? That’s a conversation we’re having and I’m trying to provide some options that he can look at going forward.”
MEC has a small footprint in Park Township, though it has a larger one in nearby townships. DSL and cable outfits Charter and Comcast are the other two major companies with a major infrastructural presence in the area.
“There’s spotty service in Park Township, as there is in most counties and townships,” Springer said. “You might have Comcast if you’re on Fisher Lake.”
In the area, some houses might have MEC access, where some houses might not, even in close proximity to one another “because Midwest is using the Consumers (Energy) utility line. They’re able to reach that (particular) house,” according to Springer.
“Comcast has tried to fill out a lot of areas, and they surprise me every once in a while,” Sills said. “I’ll find that they’re in an area because some of my customers or somebody I know will say, ‘I got internet now!’”
Neither Comcast nor Charter invests heavily in local fiber optic service. “There are major fiber companies going through the county, but they don’t do what’s called last mile,” Sills said. “Those are called middle mile carriers. They only want the big customers (like manufacturers). They don’t want the little guy.”
As a consequence, most rural internet service comes via cable or DSL. For advocates like Springer, the fiber-optic solution is up to public entities, a regional cooperative like MEC, or a public-private partnership.
Sills said public entities like local governments can and do build out systems in the way that they do other public works like water systems, but they tend to be in well-funded municipalities, and such approaches have political critics.
“Coldwater is an example. They built a ring around the city and they sell broadband. There has been a lot of criticism about city government getting into (it),” Sills said. “(The critics) think they’re saving the taxpayer from getting ripped off by the public utility.”
Sills said actual funding sources can vary, and some projects can be funded by bond issues or other additional taxes, but some projects are also financed from existing budgets in cases where the utility agency has the capital for it.
In places like Park Township, low population density and low tax rates, as well as individual consumers unable to front installation costs that can range into the thousands of dollars, are obstacles. Sills, Allen, and Springer all see private partnerships with local logistical support, and potential financial assistance from state and federal sources as the solutions most likely to produce practical results.
Springer is open to public and collective funding solutions. “We have the idea that we’re all in it for ourselves, and it’s up to the individual to try to do this,” Springer said. “But when you look at rural electrification in 1930s with (Franklin Delano) Roosevelt, and you look at the way we fund roads, that’s not the case at all. We collectively fund these, these utilities because they provide (for) the public (good) for everybody. When we had a bad stretch of road as we did over by Fisher Lake last year, and we had to fix it, well, you know, the township covered part of that cost. Everybody in the township helps to fix the road.”
For now, Springer says the township is in the early exploration phase regarding any fiber optic broadband options, and he is working to “build awareness about some possible solutions.” Right now, Springer sees two primary possibilities for getting fiber to Park Township.
The Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Rural Digital Opportunities Fund (RDOF) has a possible source of assistance that could potentially work in a partnership with MEC, with deadlines later this year. RDOF has $16 billion in funds for outfits like MEC that it will make available in a reverse-auction format. In that option, MEC would invest in fiber infrastructure in various areas on its own using RDOF funds to make it feasible. If its bid is successful, MEC will base the areas where it builds on RDOF eligibility requirements and on its own modeling.
Other potential funding sources exist within various federal and state agencies. Determining when, where, and how to use state and federal funds can get dicey, Allen said, because different funding sources and pools of money have to be allocated for specific purposes that sometimes do and sometimes don’t overlap with regard to purpose, geography, and other eligibility constraints.
The other option Springer sees is to follow the model of the Michigan Broadband Cooperative in Linden Township, Washington County. “They surveyed township residents find out what kind of interest is there,” Springer said. “That helps them to determine the need, and then they put out a ballot proposal.”
The proposal established a millage that paid for fiber installation, which MEC contracted to install and now operates. According to Springer, with the millage spread out over 20 years and the monthly service fees for basic internet once the system is operable, “it becomes pretty comparable to what you’re going to be paying for internet (using existing systems), where people are paying more and maybe getting less (for the money).”
“So that’s a really cool model,” Springer said, although there is more research, he would like to do to assess its viability. “There are some things that I have to get clear on. Is the funding assessed per household or per acre? In one township where they had a lot of farmers with a lot of land, one guy was said he was going to pay like $30,000 over the course of 20 years because it was based on property size. I don’t know that’s always the case. There’s ups and downs for everything.”
Springer continued, “We’re trying to show people some options because right now, it hurts property values. As schools more more to online it’s going to continue to leave some kids behind who don’t have that access. At-home based businesses, it’s tough for them, and even in Park Township Hall where we hold our elections, our internet’s so slow we have a really hard time providing results on election night.”
Springer said currently Park Township officials are trying to “take the next step for the township, “which will be to try to survey people to see what the interest is.”
“I’d also be interested in discussing this with other townships too, and see how they would approach this,” he said. “And again, we’re new to this, but maybe a couple of adjoining townships are able to go in on something that will reduce the cost. It’s just a discussion. It’s mainly me, frankly, bringing it up, but the (township) board is very supportive of it. They all know that it’s a problem, so we’re all interested in looking at different avenues.”
Allen said MEC is open to conversations with townships to find solutions.
“We’ll always evaluate what they might bring to the table. You know, again, from a company standpoint, we’ve got our financial modeling, and it will help if townships pass bonds or have special assessments or can utilize other tools to bring fiber networks into their township,” Allen said. “We’re open and receptive, and we love to have those conversations and try and figure out, you know, jointly and cooperatively, what makes sense.”
Allen is sympathetic to the situation in Park Township. “Just say from a logical standpoint, when you come home and flip the switch, you expect that light bulb to turn on and I think it’s got to be the same way with a good data connection at home,” Allen said. “We take very seriously the need to get out to rural areas and provide some sort of solution out there where others don’t exist.”
Dave Vago is a staff writer and columnist for Watershed Voice. A Philadelphia native with roots in Three Rivers, Vago is a planning consultant to history and community development organizations and is the former Executive Director of the Three Rivers DDA/Main Street program.
