Broadband task force stymied by state law
Supervisor John Robinson, Wausau, on Thursday told the Marathon County Western Towns and Villages Association the county continues to try to provide robust internet to rural residents, but, time and again, is frustrated by state law that prohibits local government from providing broadband services to end users.
Robinson, chairman of the county’s Broadband Task Force, said the county had hoped to follow the recommendation of a Design 9 study from 2019 that recommended spending $35 million on a large fiber loop and strategically placed towers that would dramatically enhance internet speeds and coverage.
The problem with the plan, Robinson said, is that the county’s internet providers said they would refuse to rent the county’s fiber and towers to improve service to their customers.
“They wouldn’t rent it if we built it,” said Robinson. “It would have been like building a highway to nowhere.”
The internet providers said no to the county’s offer, knowing that state law protected them. The county is unable to undercut them and directly provide broadband services to homeowners.
Asked what was the biggest obstacle to providing better broadband, Robinson said it was state law.
Despite these hurdles, Robinson said the county was making some incremental progress.
He said Wittenberg Telephone Co. ranked fourth in the state out of 128 proposals to receive a Public Service Commission grant to improve broadband. The company will get a grant to install fiber optic cable in the Hatley area.
Robinson acknowledged how small a step this grant project represents.
“It is 83 homes and three businesses,” he said. “It doesn’t address the needs of western Marathon County.
Robinson said the county continues to work with an internet infrastructure company, Bugtussle, to put internet transmitters on cell towers that the company is erecting for AT& T.
It also has had “good discussion with LTD, which has received a $1.3 billion federal grant, to perhaps bring better internet to Marathon County. The problem here, Robinson said, is that the firm has five years to spend the grant.
“That’s an eternity,” he said.
Robinson said that both the state in its annual budget and the federal government with its American Rescue Act is promising to spend money to improve broadband. He called on local town governments to forward unused American Rescue Act cash to the county so it could pursue various internet projects.
Rep. Donna Rozar (R-Marshfield) asked whether Elon Musk’s Starlink broadband project using low orbiting satellites had any promise in improving rural broadband.
Robinson said the service did seem to work, but at a high price. The service costs $99 a month after a $500 installation charge.
He said part of the challenge of improving broadband is to not just to provide access, but affordable service. He said any service that’s over $50 a month is not considered affordable.
Robinson said the county continues to work at improving internet, but as it is able to.
“We are doing the best we can in an environment where we are not in control,” he said.
