One Wisconsin energy co-op recently announced plans to bring broadband to all of its members.
“Frankly, the last year has taught us how important broadband is to our members. For the last 20-25 years, no one else has done it. And there’s been a lot of desire by our rural residents, especially in Pierce and Pepin counties to have access to high-speed quality internet service,” said Nate Boettcher, President of Pierce-Pepin Cooperative Services. “The tier-one providers just haven’t come out into the rural areas, no different than it was back in the late 1930s with electric service when investor-owned utilities wanting to go into high-density areas and serve where it was more cost-effective from them, we’ve seen that same thing with broadband.”
The plan is to build the project in phases, which he estimates would create about 800 miles of broadband lines by the time they’re finished. “To build out our entire service area it would be about $32 million,” explained Boettcher. “So, we’re aggressively going after public service grants, working with our local counties and townships boards to help provide funding for this. And of course, putting in our own money to build out this infrastructure.”
With all of the expenses that go into a project this size, they’ve luckily come up with a way to save some money. “Using our existing infrastructure to string that fiber, it’s been really kind of a key component of how we’ve looked at building this out because we can use our existing poles, we can use where we put it underground, and we can do that in a more cost-effective way than other providers, and it’s really allowing us to do this project, in a way that is cost-effective that other providers just simply can’t do.”
The goal for the broadband project is to be fully finished and have every co-op member connected by 2025.
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