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Kent County may be on the verge of entering the world of high-speed fiber-optic internet, completing broadband access for 99.99% of the homes in the county within two years.
For over a year, the Kent County Broadband Committee—Kent County IT Director Scott Boone; Technology Director for Kent County Schools Dan MacLeod; Kent County Public Library Director Jackie Adams; Kent County engineer Jim Wright; and Director of Kent County Emergency Services Wayne Darrell—have been reviewing service provider applicants and have recommended working with FTS.
Boone and Williams outlined the FTS proposal and its significant benefits to the County, from education—students could sync their computers with school work programs—to better library access and adding a key ingredient for economic growth while offering reliable service to the underserved areas.
FTS, a California-based dark fiber (unused optical fiber) provider is already working on a network from Virginia, running throughout the Eastern Shore, according to CEO Brett Hill. This process offers Kent County a window of opportunity to be included.
FTS said that they would build six rings of fiber from Rock Hall to Millington in all directions, approximately 109 miles. The fiber would be “open access” to promote business opportunities for competing service providers. A one-time fee of $400 for “fiber to the door” is set at this point, along with $99.00/month for one gigabyte of access.
Hill said, that as they approach building the network backbone for the Eastern Shore, only a short window of opportunity exists to include Kent County. The Eastern Shore fiber backbone was already underway before FTS submitted a proposal. Commissioners are meeting with FTS Thursday to clarify all elements of the project.
FTS’s investment in the project was undisclosed publically, but Boone implied that it was a startling figure.
Commission President Pickrum cited concern over the hook-up fee for low-income families and stated that a negotiation of some sort would be ”a must for me.”
“For a long time now one of our priorities has been to bring high- speed internet into Kent County. We’ve put a lot of taxpayer money aside, and I look forward to a work session with the provider to talk about the nuts and bolts of the proposal” Commissioner Fithian said. Approximately $2 million has been earmarked for county-wide high-speed internet access.
More information will be announced after the County meeting with FTS this week.
Wilson Wyatt says
Great news. Now, it would be wonderful if the same could be true for Talbot County, including St. Michaels! The old copper wire “DSL” networks of Verizon are as slow and outdated as “dial-up” was a few years ago. Of course, there’s always cable and Satellite, with some limitations.