The project, which is the latest phase of a plan to connect all of the county, will unfold over the next six to nine months, leverage additional capital funds from vendors and target poorly served areas for service, including the eight municipalities comprising the McGuffey School District, which is the most underserved school system in the county.
All together, 700 miles of fiber optic cable will be strung in the latest phase, with at least 15 vendors receiving requests for proposals in December.
"Far too many residents have been denied normal internet speeds just because of their address," Washington County Commissioner Nick Sherman said in a prepared statement. "This is our next step in the process to provide broadband service to the unserved areas in the county."
At McGuffey School District, where nearly half the student body is economically disadvantaged and up to 80% of some communities are without an internet connection, Superintendent Andrew Oberg called broadband access "one of our generation's great civil rights issue, the haves and have nots."
McGuffy school buses and vans, equipped with mobile internet hot spots, have parked at libraries, parks and other public areas to allow residents to sign onto the internet for school work, he said.
"We have to be very creative," he said. "Clearly, I've bought into it."
Counties throughout Pennsylvania are reaching into their own coffers, hiring engineers and moving ahead in building online services that many consider critical in a connected world. The COVID-19 pandemic brought the issue to a head during the past few years as students and office workers increasingly stayed home.
"Counties have stepped in a lot of ways in these projects, taking on that local leadership role," said Lisa Schaffer, executive director of the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania of Harrisburg. "But it's still very much a patchwork of progress."
Of the total estimated $50 million for the Washington County project, $30 million has been allocated from American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 funding that the county has received. Washington County is also seeking funding through the newly formed Pennsylvania Broadband Development Authority, which will be a broker in distributing the state's share of $42.45 billion from the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program.
Applications for initial planning grant money from the broadband equity access program were due in August.
Todd L. Eachus, president of the Broadband Communications Association of Pennsylvania, a Harrisburg-based trade group, said he expected federal broadband equity access dollars to reach the state by early 2024. Before then, counties can tap a $279 million U.S. Treasury fund as another source of broadband grants.
"Based on the geography and topography of the Commonwealth, we need to take a technology neutral approach," Mr. Eachus said. "That's where I see the strongest effort, getting the mapping right."
Distribution of broadband expansion funds turns on the Federal Communications Commission's development of maps showing areas of each state where internet connections are poor or missing; poorest served areas will get funding priority. A draft of the map was expected in November for review by counties and state government officials, according to FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel.
Fiber optic cable, most of which is strung above ground to provide internet connections, can cost $40,000 or more per mile, Mr. Eachus said. But cost isn't the only obstacle to getting internet access to every resident.
Supply chain disruptions and labor shortages may be another snag in rolling out universal internet access, said Brian Barno, vice president of government affairs at Broadband Communications. "Getting enough qualified labor to do this — there's going to be a massive need for labor," he said.
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