Begging for broadband: residents desperate for fast, reliable internet in rural Ozark County

Decent internet access in Ozark County, and other rural areas, has been an issue for several years. But recently, the issue has come to the forefront of federal, state and local governments that are all struggling to find an economical solution to the continuing problem.

Much of Ozark County struggles to have access to fast and reliable internet. Many rely on Centurylink for service while much of the county can only obtain satellite internet service. Others connect with Gainesville-based Ozarks Wi-Fi. Despite these options,  residents in many areas are finding good internet access difficult.

Jabet Wade, whose family owns and operates two businesses in the Pontiac area, summed up the problem. “Centurylink internet service and speed, which is what we have at our home and businesses in Pontiac, is painfully slow,” she recently wrote in an email to the Times. “It has gotten so bad that it’s nearly impossible for us to do anything, especially in the evenings.”

Wade said that she and her husband, Matt, and their children, Lola and Finn, “don’t even try to stream anything anymore. I have spoken with the folks at Ozarks Wi-Fi a few times. I know they’re trying to get more towers in this area, but until they do we’re pretty much stuck. 

“We do have decent cell [phone] service at home with Verizon and often use our [cellular] hot spot in lieu of our wi-fi. But even Verizon has gotten less reliable when traveling from place to place. Folks with Verizon can’t talk on their phones going from Pontiac to Gainesville without dropping calls three or four times. It’s very frustrating,” Wade said. 

Not a luxury

Wade’s frustration is echoed by Missouri State Rep. Travis Smith, who hosted a town hall meeting about broadband Oct. 20 in Pontiac.

“Broadband is by far, to me, the number one issue facing this district, the state of Missouri, the United States,” Smith told the Times in an interview a few days after the meeting. 

He stressed that he believes accessible and reliable internet is essential in today’s world.

“If you don’t have internet . . . it’s like the difference between the have and have-nots,” said Smith. “It used to be a luxury. It was neat if you could get online and look up some things. Now it’s no different than having running water. It’s no different than having electricity.”

Smith said that although the lack of reliable internet service has been an issue for a few years, the recent global pandemic has shined a spotlight on the need for the utility.

“If covid taught us anything, and covid taught us a lot, but if there was a positive thing that came out of covid, it is that 60 percent of us realized we can do a lot of things from home,” said Smith. “This is the first time in the history of the industrialized world that people can [contribute to the] global economy from their living room . . . if they have internet. That’s the key.

“It’s just something we’ve got to have, that connectivity.”

A possible solution

Smith knows that getting reliable internet to rural areas is not and will not be an easy task. “In our areas, we are so sparsely populated that the only true way you can get good broadband, especially fiber, would be through the (electric) co-ops,” he said.

According to Smith, the situation is similar to the 1930s, when the electric co-ops were tasked with getting electricity to rural areas. “It was a challenge, but that was their job…that’s why we had co-ops.

“Now, though, the co-ops are at a point where they don’t know what to do based on what the cost is,” he said.

The electric co-ops are reluctant to take on such a project, said Smith, especially after looking at the initial cost. In fact, only eight of the 40 co-ops in Missouri have decided to offer broadband. And the co-ops’ hesitancy has a lot to do with concern over future technology, especially improved satellite technology.

“Currently that technology has not been good,” said Smith. “Still, Elon Musk [who is developing satellite-based Starlink internet service] is supposed to be really good. But his focus is not going to be over Ozark County, Missouri.” (Starlink is not currently available in Ozark County.)

Smith is concentrating his efforts on convincing the co-ops to consider installing fiber, hopefully with the government’s help. However, he understands that the cost to reach “the last mile” or every residence is almost insurmountable. 

For instance, Smith said the estimated cost for White River Valley Electric Co-op, which serves most of Ozark County, would be around $310 million. And the co-op serves a five-county area, so the co-op would most likely need to extend the service to those counties too. 

“So I totally understand why the co-ops are worried,” Smith said. They “can’t make that kind of investment.”

But Smith has a possible solution for such a seemingly insurmountable problem.

“I work with a lot of people, especially conservatives, and we always talk about the free markets, let the free market help out, but there are certain times when we’re in areas like this [rural areas] there’s no such thing as free market (because it doesn’t pay),” said Smith. “I’m a conservative Republican, but sometimes government has to step in and do infrastructure, like building roads and bridges. That is a great example. That is, by far, one of the most important pieces of infrastructure. 

Government builds the roads, but local companies work on those building projects, Smith said. “Local people get paid, but it’s the government paying for it. So I want to do the same type thing with broadband.”

Smith says co-ops are the most logical solution to the lack of broadband because the companies already have the infrastructure and the easements that would be needed for such a large project. (See related letter to the editor, along with a WRVEC response, on page A4.)

Local use of federal covid funds

One of the ideas Smith and others had is the use of American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) funds recently released by the federal government.

However, those funds, which were appropriated by Congress, come with specific guidelines and limitations that must be heeded. 

According to the written information received by the Ozark County Commissioners, the biggest drawback to using ARPA funds for increased internet accessibility in Ozark County is the internet speed available from area providers. 

The ARPA funds are only eligible for companies offering reliable internet speeds with a minimum of 100 megabits per second (Mbps) download and upload. One local internet service provider’s website says it offers packages with from 2 to 10 Mbps download speeds and 1-3 Mbps upload speeds – far short of the speeds required for funding by the ARPA money.

“There was a guy that told me the only way to get that much up and down (speed) is fiber only,” Ozark County Western Commissioner Layne Nance said at the Oct. 25 commissioners meeting.

“And that may be what we have to look at in the future,” added Presiding Commissioner John Turner. 

County Clerk Brian Wise said he called Sho-Me Technologies, the company that provides the fiber internet at the courthouse. “I just asked…how much do you think it would cost to run fiber in Ozark County? I knew exactly, or real close, to how many miles of county road we have…and I’m like, how much would it take to run 700 miles of fiber?” Wise said. “And he laughed.”

Wise said the man told him that the Trump administration had done a national review of what it would take to get high-speed internet everywhere in the United States. “It’s somewhere between $39,000 to $51,000 per mile,” said Wise. “We got $890,000 (in ARPA funds) this year. We’d get about 10 miles.”

Wise said his quick estimate of the cost to run fiber along all the roads in Ozark County was $32 million, not including the cost of running fiber “the last mile” to each house ­– an average of $1,500 per house.

Like Smith, the commissioners are aware of the problem of unreliable internet in Ozark County. And also like Smith, they want to help.

“We’d like to help…but our hands are tied,” said Turner. “We didn’t write these rules. They came out of Congress. You can write your legislator.” (See related story about the commissioners’ response, page A5.)