Broadband service coming to more towns, boosting state's economy
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May 22—About $115 million in federal funds will spread broadband internet to rural areas around the state in the coming years, improving people's lives and boosting the state's economy.
"By the time we get done with these resources (in late 2026), we do expect to have a very significant portion of the unserved and underserved locations in the state up to speed and online," Taylor Caswell, commissioner of the Department of Business and Economic Affairs, said in a video news conference Monday.
Caswell participated in an announcement of $50 million in federal funding to the New Hampshire Electric Cooperative. The money will be used to connect about 23,000 homes and businesses in more than 70 communities, including Franklin, Littleton, Plymouth, Wolfeboro, Colebrook and Pittsburg.
Locations receiving broadband will be "able to compete for workforce and population and people to move to their communities to help them revitalize those communities and to help fuel the next generation of downtown businesses or small businesses or participate or work remotely (as is) increasingly the case," Caswell said.
Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., helped secure funding for the project from the American Rescue Plan passed by Congress.
"For too long, even as the rest of the world has become more interconnected, rural communities have struggled to get access to affordable high-speed internet," Hassan said. "If we are going to build a 21st-century economy, then high-speed internet access must be a reality for every single Granite Stater in every corner of our state."
Hassan said the federal infrastructure law also will provide financial help to some broadband customers struggling to pay for broadband service.
NH Broadband, NHEC's wholly owned subsidiary, now serves about 1,500 NHEC members in seven towns. The $50 million grant "is supercharging that effort, which for the next year will focus on building fiber-optic networks to serve about 15,000 or so members in 30+ Grafton County towns," NHEC spokesman Seth Wheeler said by email.
NHEC hopes to offer the service to all its customers by the end of 2026, Wheeler said after the event.
"It's important to note that we don't plan to build throughout these entire towns," Wheeler said. "We are building our fiber-optic networks following our existing electrical system, which often only serves a portion of the residents of the particular town."
The video event included Plymouth State University's Robert Nadeau, director of PSU's Professional Sales Institute, who also teaches marketing, sales and sales management.
Previously, Nadeau paid for two internet services: analog service and satellite, the latter dependent "on the day and the weather," he said
"Now, we have service that is like 10 times better, and we're saving money every month," said Nadeau, an NHEC member from Plymouth.
Rep. Chris Pappas, D-N.H., provided numbers showing 5% of Granite Staters live in areas with no broadband infrastructure, 62.7% reside in places with only one internet service provider, and 10% of households don't have any internet subscriptions.
The $50 million grant is "going a long way to closing this digital divide," Pappas said.
Earlier this year, Consolidated Communications was awarded $40 million in federal funding to build fiber to nearly 25,000 unserved homes throughout New Hampshire.
The company also will invest its own money to add another 32,000 additional homes, providing fiber internet services to a total of more than 57,000 homes across six counties largely by the end of 2024, the company said.
Caswell said another $25 million in federal funding will plug other coverage gaps.
Getting the entire state access to high-speed internet puts New Hampshire at "a significant competitive advantage economically and from the standpoint of getting the workforce that we need for our businesses across New Hampshire, so it's more than just all of the good stuff that comes from it," such as streaming Netflix, Caswell said.
