Long awaited internet service being installed

"We are installing equipment on five tower sites in Adams County," Gary Cooper, president aof Southern Ohio Communications Services Inc., said Tuesday. "The installation will be completed by the end of July. We will turn on a limited number of subscribers for testing, and expect to be ready for all subscribers by Aug. 1."

In August of 2010, U.S. Agricultural Secretary Tom Vilsack announced funding would be available for 126 broadband high-speed internet expansion projects in 38 states, including one in Adams and Pike counties, from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

"With this grant, we will be taking internet service into unserved areas of Adams County and Pike County where it is cost prohibitive to lay cables," Cooper said in a 2010 article in The People's Defender.

SOCSI is the company receiving the grant for the expansion, and is contributing 51 percent of the capital for the $1.4 million project for Adams and Pike counties by taking out a loan to the company. The grant is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Utilities Service. Through the terms of the grant, the basic internet plan will cost $35, according to Cooper. The basic plan provides 785 mHz download and 1.0 to 1.5 mHz upload, Cooper explained.

A radio transmitter was installed on the Measley Ridge Water Tower on Tuesday, with the next installation scheduled in Peebles today. Other transmitters are being installed at Cherry Fork, Pumpkin Ridge Road, and Clayton.

In-home receivers will be in the form of a yaggi, or 3-inch antenna on the roof, or a flat 12-inch by 12-inch panel. A cable will carry the signal into the house to a router provided by the customer. From the router, multiple computers may be served in the home.

"The cable can be connected directly to the computer, but the router is suggested as it would provide some lightning protection and would provide for multiple computer use in the home," Cooper said Tuesday.

SOCSI will make an announcement sometime next month when the equipment is up and running.

Currently customers in each village in Adams County - West Union, Winchester, Seaman, Peebles, Cherry Fork and Manchester - are served with broadband internet service through fiber optic cable by Time Warner. In areas not served, a spokesperson at the company said they are willing to do a feasibility study.

Another company, Horizon Telecom, is working on a project to provide broadband internet service to Middle Mile customers through fiber optic cable. Horizon was awarded an $18 million contract to construct a fiber-optic network across 13 counties in southern Ohio by the Southern Ohio Health Care Network.

Along with Horizon Telecom, the Ohio Academic Resources Network (OARnet), Com Net, Inc. and OneCommunity formed the Ohio Middle Mile Consortium to create a road map for a seamless broadband infrastructure in Ohio. The three companies together were awarded a total of $141.3 million in federal stimulus funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Their projects will add more than 3,600 new miles of broadband fiber throughout Ohio.

On Aug. 18, 2010, a $66.5 million grant was awarded to the Consortium to support an Appalachian project, with Horizon Telecom providing the additional $28.5 million. The grant was a Broadband Technologies Opportunity Program stimulus grant. The Connecting Appalachia Ohio Middle Mile Consortium project will connect 592 community institutions to broadband in 34 counties.

The project will provide service to hospitals for telemedicine, schools for distance learning, and large businesses needing to send and receive large files, according to Brooke Eiselstein of Horizon. About 50 percent of the project is done overall.

"The network is still under construction," Eiselstein said Tuesday. "There have been delays with railroads and easements, but it should be up and running by July 2013."

The project is not designed for small business or residential customers, but Horizon is looking to partner with some wireless internet service providers who may want to use the fiber optic cable to connect to cell towers, according to Eiselstein.

She explained that the fiber optic cable is as thick as a thumb with 288 fiberglass strands thin as human hair. It is encased in a hard rubber covering.

"Fiber optic cable is more reliable than copper wire," she said. "Copper wire is covered with paper, which gets wet, and as it ages there are glitches in the service. Fiber optic cables don't age and the weather doesn't matter."