Today, about 500,000 Michigan households lack access to reliable high-speed Internet infrastructure, according to the state’s Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity.
Another 730,000 households are unable to use broadband Internet effectively because of issues such as affordability, device access, technology adoption and digital literacy.
Now county and township officials in six Northwest Michigan counties are giving a big “thumbs up” to telecommunications provider AcenTek as it seeks to expand broadband services in underserved areas with help from state grants.
“It is extremely important that state broadband grant funding be obtained to provide much-needed broadband service to this area,” wrote Grand Traverse County Board Chairman Scott Sieffert in a letter to the Michigan High-Speed Internet Office, known as “MiHi.”
“AcenTek’s proposed expansion will enable greater collaboration and teamwork between community service centers, public safety offices, county offices and municipal offices,” Sieffert added.
The Grand Traverse County board unanimously endorsed AcenTek’s grant application plan at a meeting Wednesday morning.
If grant applications are approved, the expansion work will focus on selected rural areas of Benzie, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska, Lake, Leelanau, Manistee and Wexford counties.
Closer to Traverse City, residents of the South Boardman area of Grand Traverse County and Kalkaska counties could get new fiber optic-based service, as well as those in the Buckley area of Grand Traverse and Wexford counties.
Additional broadband service could be added in areas around Copemish, Mesick and Hoxeyville.
Rollout would take about three years once grant funding is received, said Corey Compagner, operations manager for AcenTek.
Grant money for the AcenTek project would come from the state’s “Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment” (BEAD) program, which received $1.559 billion in federal funding to help “close the digital divide” in underserved areas, especially rural communities.
Local governments involved will not be asked to providing additional funding to the project, Compagner noted.
MiHi recently completed the “BEAD State Challenge Process” to determine the unserved and underserved locations that are eligible to be connected with BEAD funding, labor department officials noted.
The State Challenge Process was one step of the steps required by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration in the BEAD Program.
Completing this challenge process will ultimately enable the universal availability of high-speed Internet to every home, business, and institution across the state.
State Rep. Betsy Coffia, D-Traverse City, and U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Michigan, are longtime proponents of expanding broadband service in rural areas. Both have pledged to work across party lines with northern Michigan Republicans to support the effort.
AcenTek, previously known as Ace Telephone Company, was founded in 1950 by farmers in Minnesota to improve rural telephone service.
Over the years, the company has expanded beyond Minnesota to Michigan and Iowa. Its northern Michigan area office is based in Mesick.
To learn more about MiHi and the Michigan Connected Future initiative, visit: https://www.michigan.gov/leo/bureaus-agencies/mihi/miconnectedfuture.
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