live from your public media studios wrva presents Keystone addition reports a public affairs program that goes beyond the headlines to address issues in NorthEastern and Central Pennsylvania This is Keystone addition reports and now moderator Larry void go hello i'm Larry for to go The internet It's something most of us are intimately familiar with and simply cannot do without it educates entertains informs and so much more but not everyone's internet connection is created equal According to spotlight p a in september 20 22 13 percent of residents in rural areas Do not have internet access to broadband connections broadband now a web site that allows users to compare and find internet providers estimates the number of people without broadband to be even higher It's a hope of the government officials that federal funding will close thatgap and e pennsylvanians to access gh speed internet but there will no doubt be some bumps in the road along the way What are the challenges to providing broadband to underserved areas and what is being done to facilitate changes We'll take a look at these and other other ncerns in just a bit But first Keystone Edition reports Paul azhar gives us an overview the internet Most of us can't imagine life without it It opens up web sites and information to us from around the world at the click of a mouse some of us remember dial up access to the internet but times have changed and vast improvements have been made to accessing the internet including that of the addition of broadband connections broadband is a term that refers to the technology that connect you to the internet and as much faster than a typical non broadband connection it includes dsl fiber cable and other high speed transmission options broadband service however is not readily available in many rural areas of Pennsylvania leading residents in those regions at a distinct disadvantage however according to the national rural electric co-operative association the twenty twenty three farm bill will authorize funding for a variety of programs run by the u s department of agriculture including broadband programs which offer loans and grants to electricity co-ops and other organizations to deploy high speed internet in rural areas that lack sufficient access So we'll those in these rural areas in Pennsylvania see a difference difference in their internet service in the near future time and funding will tell For Keystone addition reports i'm Paul bizarre well let's welcome our guests who are here to share their expertise on the topic joining us here in the studio is jennifer wakeman she is the executive director of drive and economic development entity joining us via zoom aaron young co ceo of tri-county rural electric co-operative and tri-county connections and lisa schaffer who is the executive director of the county commissioners association of Pennsylvania welcome one at all to this This panel discussion and I really think it's important that we have some of our guests on via zoom so that we can underscore the fact that with the internet now geography really doesn't really matter at all and so aaron young he is up and mansfield and and you know that's such a long distance to drive But right now we're having our conversation and i'm going to start with you mr young Now the in late Twenty twenty one there was an infrastructure build a massive one trillion dollar infrastructure built bill that was passed in washington and usually we think of infrastructure as as roads and bridges and railways but there was sixty five billion dollars set aside in that bill to address this problem of affordable high speed internet access for underserved unserved areas mostly rural areas so my question and each of you can answer this If you'd like Why is this important Why why is it important What is the issue there And why is this particular attention being given to the rural areas mr young yeah I think reliable high speed broadband service It's become a Central part of our lives and and what we're seeing is where america is really doing is struggling to keep up and not be left behind So you know if we spend this money wisely I think we can bridge that digital divide If we if we look at telehealth if we look at online education which is become more and more prevalent You know our rural america is falling behind in being able to get online jobs So I think it's vital that that we do spend this money wisely we invest in future proof technologies we improve our problem maps to make sure that we're using this money in areas that are truly unserved and underserved and giving it to two companies and cooperatives and other organizations that are going to spend this money wisely to reach rural america and their membership mystery Tell us a little bit more about the company and how you determined that that york the co-operative wanted to expand into internet service because the company goes way back to providing it's an electrical service to provide electric service originally as a cooperative Now you're branching out Yeah so tri-county electrics been providing electric services to rural Pennsylvania Since the 1930s you serve about 5000 square miles About seven north Central Pennsylvania counties you know the movement of broadband really came from a cry from our membership that they need a connectivity and nobody was was willing to bring it to them and you know our board being a cooperative You know we're democratically controlled and we're owned by the numbers that we serve So our board really listen to the membership and looked into what they could do to to facilitate broadband for for these members and it quickly became known knowing that you know it wasn't feasible to to do this on our own we really needed to get some government funding so we entered the calf to auction and were successful and got a larger word from the cap to auction and from that trial connections was really born and so today we started to playing in april of 20 20 of rubbish broadband services and today we hooked up Forty five hundred rural pennsylvanians that previously were unserved or underserved locations The calf two options justin point out was administer through your manage through the fcc and it provided through applications the kind of competitive grants that were given out and you had to meet certain specific requirements jennifer wakeman tell us about your organization drive which is an economic downturn development entity Right So yeah it's it's kind of interesting Why The question you asked area of why why are they playing in this in this arena why are we playing in it because to your earlier question really is a piece of vital infrastructure infrastructure just like water sewer roads bridges all those sorts of things And without access to high speed internet we really do see opportunities lost for the residents and then potentially for people coming into the area They want to have the same same opportunity that they would have in any major city and so to be able to fully participate in the 21st century it's something that you need so that sort of how we got involved and then we actually constructed a pilot project originally in monterey county which is a great place to do a pilot project for fixed base wireless internet because monitor is geographically the smallest county in the commonwealth so we put up for tower sites and started a network there and were kind of learning how that was going to work setting up you know the public private partnership that operates the network we own it We have private isp is that go out and hookup customers and then covered happened and it was kazakh funding that actually allowed us to then expand that into out of monterey county into for surrounding counties who are now cover five counties in Central Pennsylvania I have a feeling are going to be explaining where all this funding is coming from the kahrizak just to remind you was the act that provided funding to businesses that we're probably going to well to mitigate the the the downturn I could not possible downturn of That was caused by the pandemic lisa schaffer you are the executive director of the county commissioners association of Pennsylvania So what are you hearing from the The leaders in the region rural counties about the need for better internet service to provide the services they provide provide and what they rely on the internet to to provide the services for the residents of these various rural communities so our organization we've been presented 67 counties all across the come off Many of which are rural and those counties those county leaders since commissioners what they are seen for many years has been a need in their communities for broadband connectivity things like agriculture even now are relying on that that broadband that that ability to connect the technology to improve the way they do their jobs as was mentioned already things like tell a health and education but even the prior to the pandemic our counties had prioritized world broadband because they saw the need for it they saw how many of their residence didn't have the same opportunities as those maybe in war urban areas but even those in more urban areas may be didn't have the same access even across those areas so but then of course the pandemic happened and we saw even more Just how vital having internet was too everyday life and so many of our counties You know we work with providers or entities like the tri-county co off and saw that there were different players in this space but nobody really coordinating and so many of our county stepped in to say how can we bring people to the table to try to develop solutions we can help to address and solve this issue Mm hmm In just a couple of minutes we're going to see how the internet intersects with the agricultural industry but but I just want to take a Mr young give you a couple of just a short time to try to encapsulate what your project entails and how those funds are being spent yeah so our project on systems going to be about it Three thousand mile fiber build so today we have received about sixty four million dollars in various funding sources the the project is going to cost you know cost a lot more than that building a rural rural america role Pennsylvania is extremely expensive so I think i've mentioned earlier without the government funding It wouldn't be possible or feasible for us to do We're about five meters per mile on the electric side across the 5000 square mile territory and if you look at meters it could be a shared a chicken coop and unserviceable location so it really comes down to about three three serviceable locations per mile is what are build looks like So the government funding is essential for us to be successful in deploying to rural america one advantage that we do have is a cooperative is we own the infrastructure were attaching too so we can we can even though it's expensive we can use those federal funds and make them go a lot further because it's on infrastructure that we're already maintaining right away with that we're already already clearing but we've we've At the end of our build will pass at least twenty two thousand locations and with with expectations of serving at least ten to twelve thousand of those locations So you're actually running fiber optic cable through the woods of Pennsylvania You know where where there are a lot of deer in the running that cable actual cable fiber optic cable through that but that's not the only way to deliver broadband fast internet and jennifer wakeman drive the broadband that you are offering works in a different way Could you give us an idea of how that works Sure I gave you the very non-technical description of it because I am not the technical expert on this but essentially where we're using a wireless connection so it works very similarly to radio which you know a thing or two about so we have now I believe 22 tower sites across the five county region that we serve and so we have point to point connection so going from tower to tower propagate set signal there's fiber coming in at several locations so it is a fiber fed so we have the ability to have the same kinds of speeds that fiber does and then at each of those towers sites we then have radios that are the point to multi points and they go out to those individual end users whether it's a business or residents Well wdia visited be in our farm supply and beavertown and snyder county there we talked with philip roush to learn how important the internet has become to the agriculture industry which remains among the most important industries in the commonwealth philip also gives us a a better understanding of how the broadband delivery method ms wakeman described works our world and our technology is driven by internet and you know all these bigger towns and stuff Get internet but they don't think about the people that live Back here in the middle of nowhere we sell farm equipment pretty much about any avenue farming anything you see here is in inventory there's thousands and thousands of parts here It's almost impossible to do about it internment to be able to do the job job because our parts look ups are all internet based and we were basically getting too megabytes downloads speed a second which is like next to nothing in today's terms There'll be just for example maybe five 10 people standing at the counter wanting something in our hands are pretty much tied We'll do in the farming industry Time is everything because you only got a specific window between whether to get a maid So they don't don't have tons of extra time to be standing around did get frustrated and then we get frustrated just It's not a good thing You know better sky packet was a lifesaver to that white box there by packets box There are tower is right behind us But you got to have direct line of sight to it and we couldn't get it They put equipment up on the neighboring dairy farm so looking from here you can see You can see our building there They have the thing on this end where they received the signal and then they have the white box back where it deems it down to us and it's hard wired or computers The biggest thing is just being able to be a lot more productive and you know not everybody has a great neighbor beside them like I did that we can work around it So there is still a need for good internet to get to other people well thanks for that Philip and jennifer it's important I think that some people would think of wireless is being a little less reliable but it's using this over a century old technology of radio right that we have been using for many here and we built to carry your grade network This is the same technology that some counties used to send their emergency management traffic over so this is a very robust network we've constructed it's built to last It is scalable so as technologies improve and things like that And we have one of the things we did with the kahrizak dollars that we received from the five counties we actually put a non line of sight technology so because as you may be aware of has some trees in it And when you have line of sight technology ees become a challenge and it and all it does is it basically uses a different frequency band so it it's just radio I shouldn't I shouldn't to simplify it that much It's a little more complicated than that but basically but you are not on the isp an internet service provider you work with the exact partnership correct with private companies Yes And we have lots of them Whereas mr young you an isp right We are an isp so before we we got into the ground in business We tried to reach out and find other other isp is that the co-operative could work with and there just wasn't enough financial instead of in our area that they were interested in and partnering to build with the co-operative so we decided on our own So what we're starting to learn are there different models out there and and that model has to kind of be makes sense for that particular region lisa schaffer Pennsylvania now has a broadband a florida authority and And Can you tell us how the various county governments are going to interact with this authority that is in place to oversee Much of the funding that we've been talking about yes the broadband authority was created under the umbrella of the state department to me at community and economic development and its purpose really is as you mentioned too well two full Really One is develop a statewide broadband plan which is really critical especially as I mentioned earlier a number of occasions that have stepped into that role and looking at how they could help to coordinate and bring people together but it was still very much in ad hoc It was so piecemeal fashion there was no one overlay to kind of look at the state as a whole and where that need wasn't how we could meet that so one of the things that the authority is statewide plan and they've been very vested in already working with our counties they know those kinds already have a local plans they know they have jsc data from mapping that could be very useful understanding where we do and don't have access to help improve those federal maps that will help term and what kind of funding we get this summer through the beat federal beat program and and then the second piece is being the empty that will be sought the hub for getting all that federal funding coming in A gamble for we've had sought pockets of funding we had different local grants perhaps or different federal auctions many counties use their care respond or the american rescue plan dollars to invest in broadband but this will be that this federal funding will be a large influx of funding that will benefit the entire commonwealth so working together to make sure there's a plan in place plays across the state and then we can make sure that we're investing those dollars wisely working with the projects in the programs that are already out there to best serve all the people of so we're talking about the benefits to the reasons we're talking about This is you know for the best Best service that we're looking for and I'd like each of you to ask this question A little bit more detail and a little more granular and aaron young I'll start off with you How will spending all of this fund these billions of dollars improve the lives of the residents in the rural parts of Pennsylvania and what real ways without it improve their lives um yeah so I think if you look at even even health care for an example in rural Pennsylvania it's It's quite a ways to to get to a doctor Certainly if you need to see a specialist So I think the ability for our you know our older demographic which resides in rural towns Pennsylvania too easily get that remote health care and get it quickly I think that's going to be a huge benefit to improving their lives looking at it education I mean we had we had students during the pandemic they had to drive to the local mcdonald's and hop on the wi-fi just to get connectivity to do their school and then you know talking about jobs in rural america is going to miss out on a lot of the new jobs that are being creative creative because of the the remote work movement and they don't qualify for those jobs without good connectivity so I think what we're seeing is a lot of youth are leaving rural america and they're not coming back And with with good connectivity you know they can't come back and still get a good job and being your family and where they grew up in where they ultimately one lisa's schaefer do you have anything to add I think one oranges Thank you be summed up this opportunity for all of our pennsylvanians no matter where you are You know whether you're a child whether you're an adult whether even no matter what industry work in no matter what I need you have that that communication than the need for information that need to be connected to people is so critical to be able to keep up with today's world in so many ways I think really what what internet expansion live in rural broadband really means is opportunity for everyone Would you agree with that Absolutely and I think it's a key piece of economic development which is what drive does so that's why we have gotten involved in this space simply because without a solution We are at a disadvantage and we all know how wonderful it is to live in Pennsylvania particularly in Central Pennsylvania where i'm from And we want other people to come and join us and without having all of the modern conveniences that's that's certainly a detriment The other piece of this is not just being able to access high speed internet but having options some of us have If you look at what we pay in the center part of the state to what they pay out in the philly in pittsburgh harrisburg areas where they have more than of high speed internet the costs is very different So that's that's another that's another entire show his to talk about the equity of it and who's paying for it and how much they're paying for it because you can have high speed internet but is it affordable internet right And if you can't afford it It might as well not be there Right so these these funds are there in a way to to level the playing field in a way Certainly And I think they're that the federal government through the fcc they have a couple of programs to help offset some of that the costs to end users but certainly one of the things that we see is when you have we've seen a couple of things since we built the network one there pricing has not risen quite is dramatically because when there's other competition and that was not necessarily our goal Our goal was get it out to people who don't have it But this is sort of you know the downstream effect there's that then there Also we're seeing places that could not get it from a private company before all of a sudden now they're running service into regions and we're like great even if we're not your provider if you can get it That's fantastic Because of some of the things that and whether you know we don't know if it's a direct effect but some of my board members think that commissioners that we work with are reporting that back or like hey They ran fiber finally Great That's all we want there are lots of ways to skin this cat as it were Aaron's got one way to do it We've got one way to do it Like you said earlier that their it's important to have the authority who's really looking at that overall what's needed in across the state and then what's being done in each region Right And again these dollars came from the infrastructure bill A lot of them but there are other places that you can go Foundation grants and loans and things of that sort And I think it's interesting to the that the approximately sixty five billion dollars provided by the federal government in the infrastructure bill is being doled out by a number of agencies such as the usda the fcc and the ntia the national telecommunications and information administration which is an arm of the executive branch that agency alone is responsible for managing forty two point five billion dollars in funds and there are also as I said funds available through foundation grants and loans from ngos as well as private investment So does the future look bright for for rural broadband in a word mr young I think it looks very bright as long as we spend the money that's coming out wisely and and to refine the maps so that we are spending it in areas that truly truly need the money and jennifer give you the last word I think so I think there's a lot of work to be done Certainly And that's why we're all here today well I would like to thank our panelists for participating jennifer wakeman aaron young This is schaefer and thank you for joining us For more information please visit w va wdia dot org slash Keystone reports and remember you can read watch this episode on demand anytime online or on the w va I app for Keystone Edition i'm Larry void Thank you so much for watching Well in stay safe