ETCOG Takes on Rural Internet Access Project

By Bill Woodall

East Texas Council of Governments is working on a project which would deliver high-speed internet to communities across a region reaching from Oklahoma to Alto.

The project will ultimately cost somewhere between $25 million and $35 million – so large that ETCOG is working with Ark-Tex Council of Governments to develop what’s called a “broadband backbone.”

A so-called townhall meeting will be held at Bodacious Barbecue in Kilgore at 10 a.m. on Friday, March 5.
ETCOG serves a 14-county region centered on Kilgore and reaching as far as Camp County on the north, Cherokee County on the south, Henderson and Anderson counties on the west and ending at the Louisiana state line.

ATCOG serves 10 counties of far northeastern Texas plus Miller County, Arkansas.

The two councils of government have contracted with Texas A&M University and Kimball Technologies to draft the plan.

According to information provided by ETCOG, the two local agencies would have to raise about $7 million to $10 million – about a fourth of the cost -- from local sources. They are looking for assistance from the local communities they serve as well as major “stakeholders.”

Lindsay Vanderbilt, ETCOG’s spokeswoman on this project, defines “stakeholders” as industries and organizations that could benefit the most from high-speed internet access: hospitals, colleges, cities, school districts and private industries.

She said ETCOG has been told “by some economic development corporations that industrial prospects have come here and backed out after discovering our technological limitations.”

The project would not deliver Internet access to residents’ homes, Vanderbilt said. “This would provide what’s called the ‘middle mile.’ Private companies would connect to this fiber optic infrastructure for the last mile.”

“We’re not trying to compete with the private sector; we’re trying to eliminate an obstacle for the private sector,” said David Cleveland, executive director of ETCOG.

The trunk envisioned by the partnership would allow the transmission of data via fiber optic lines, T-1 phone lines and microwave.

“What we’re trying to do is fill the gaps where they do exist.

“This is one of the key pieces of infrastructure that puts our region at risk of not being able to compete in the 21st century,” Cleveland said. “Access to high-speed Internet is like … what it meant to have a railroad come through your town in the 19th century.”

The final key, he agreed, is for private companies to provide “last mile” service in truly rural areas. Those companies are out there, Cleveland said. “In fact we had a meeting with one such last mile company this morning.”

Cleveland said communities in the region are being asked to provide some kind of support.

“We’re asking them to come up with at least a letter of support or any kind of support they can provide, even aerial or terrestrial rights. If we can get the right to put an antenna on a water tower, it will not cost them a penny but it will be a tremendous,” he said.

The federal grant for the project would be funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act – the national stimulus plan – and calls for the project to be substantially complete within two years from the grant approval and completed within three.