Escambia County approves proposal to bring high-speed internet to north end

Escambia County again selected Escambia River Electric Cooperative's proposal to build a rural broadband network, after a challenge of its initial selection process prompted a second round of bidding.

The Escambia County Commission held a special meeting Thursday as the formal selection committee for the solicitation to hear presentations from two bidders, EREC, which is partnering with Conexon, and a bid from a partnership between Nokia, Precision Contract Services and IBT Inc.

After formally scoring both bidders, the County Commission ranked EREC's proposal as the highest, with a score of 484 out of a maximum of 500, while the Nokia, PCS, and IBT's bid scored 462.

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The commission voted 4-1 to negotiate an agreement with EREC for a rural broadband network, with Commissioner Mike Kohler voting against it. Kohler said he voted against the measure because he felt it was still too expensive, and he thought the county American Rescue Plan Act funds could be used for other things.

The county will provide $6.3 million in funds from its share of the ARPA funds for EREC to build a fiber optic network across the co-op's service area covering 4,000 homes and businesses in northern Escambia County.

Ryan Campbell, CEO of EREC, told the commission he expects the first customers to get fiber broadband internet service within six months and for the entire project to be complete within a year and a half.

"I see this as a service," Campbell said. "This is not a business that we're trying to get into, this is a service. We're trying to serve our members."

The cost for the customers would be $49.95 for 100 Mbps speed at the low end and $99.95 for 2 Gbps speed at the top end.

Building a broadband "backbone" in northern Escambia County

The total cost of the project is $24 million. EREC's board had already approved taking out low-interest loans to fund the project.

The county selected it the first time in December. Campbell said EREC would seek grants from the state, but the county's contribution guarantees the project will happen.

Conexon, EREC's partner, will run the internet service provider for EREC. The project includes running a fiber internet "backbone" that will network county-owned facilities within the EREC service area.

The county will seek a second phase project with other service providers for the southern areas of the county. Campbell said EREC is committed to connecting the fiber network "backbone" to the network of whichever provider wins the second round so all county facilities will be connected.

For now, EREC said the fiber internet service would only be for its Escambia County members, but it may expand the service to its Santa Rosa County members in the future, just not with Escambia County's funds.

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"That is an option later, especially if this is received very well and we're very successful with it," Campbell said.

The selection Thursday was the second for EREC because Escambia County's first solicitation drew a protest after Commissioner Steven Barry asked the communications blackout period be waived for him to conduct direct negotiations with two bidders, one of which was EREC.

Cox Communications, another bidder that scored higher under the county's first selection criteria than EREC, objected to the selection of EREC, noting that waiving the blackout period undermined the fair competition in the bid process.

After Cox filed its protest, Escambia County issued a new call for bids. The second round criteria mirrored the service area of EREC. Cox did not bid on the second round.

The second round of bidding

Nokia, PCS and IBT's bid proposed an option for the county to provide $10 million in ARPA funding, and the companies would seek another $20 million in state and federal grants to build a fiber network backbone that would include private 5G cell towers to provide internet to people's homes.

The group said it could complete the project in 24 months and provide high-speed internet to more than 2,000 households in the area. It also provided an option to run fiber directly to people's homes but said it would take up to five years to accomplish.

The cost to customers for private 5G internet would be $35 a month.

Escambia County Commission Jeff Bergosh asked both bidders why their solution was better than an option like SpaceX's Starlink company.

Daniel Toledano with IBT said satellite internet would never be as reliable as a wired connection or even a wireless connection with a connection point just one mile away.

"With the satellite, you're several miles away," Tolendano said. "So there's many things that can interrupt that connection."

Campbell said EREC already offers its customers a satellite internet option through Viasat, but from his own experience, the "jitter rate" or latency is too high to access streaming video or networked games reliably.

Campbell said once the fiber network is built, EREC would likely end its partnership with Viasat.

Barry said he had no doubt that both companies could successfully build the project, but EREC offers a better price because it has the strategic advantage of already having the infrastructure in place that it can add to.

"In this scenario, I think it would have been extremely difficult for any for-profit company to come in that doesn't have the infrastructure to compete effectively," Barry said.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Escambia County approves rural broadband in second go-around