Here's Wayne County's plan to improve broadband, cell service

Having heard from over 1,600 people across Wayne County where internet service is nonexistent or poor and identifying thousands of places where a cell phone does not work, county officials have identified several internet service providers (ISP) interested in tackling the problem. As much as $60 million in state grants is being sought by providers to do the work in Wayne.

Grant recipients will be announced in January. Given successful applications, ISPs will have only two years to install the towers and string fiber cable. The county’s broadband consultant, Kelly Lewis of Lewis Strategic, Mechanicsburg, said that thousands of high-paying jobs will be created across northeast Pennsylvania.

Wayne County commissioners in Honesdale, Sept. 28, heard an update about the Wayne County Broadband Project.

This project developed through the county initiative Wayne Tomorrow, in which committees plan strategies to address identified needs, one of them being the serious lack of broadband and cellular coverage in rural Wayne County.

In January 2022, the commissioners retained Lewis Strategic using a grant from the William H. Chatlos Foundation to implement the project.

Wayne County, Lewis observed, is especially well-organized at trying to improve broadband.

Lewis coordinated a public survey to ascertain the problem's extent. He described the response as "overwhelming" with over 1,600 households and 121 employers answering the survey. Respondents identified over 3,360 dead cell service zone locations.

This presents a public safety issue in an emergency if someone cannot use a cell phone to call 911. He noted that 93% of 911 calls in Wayne County are made by cell phone.

The county is so rural, he noted, some townships lack cable TV franchise agreements.

ISPs interested

Following the survey, on March 1, 2022, a Request for Proposal (RFP)/ Request for Information (RFI) was sent out to Wayne County employers seeking upgraded broadband. The RFP included 83 organizations, including major employers and school districts, and addresses three priorities: improving employer/business access; expanding home internet connectivity and enhancing wireless coverage.

There were 21 ISPs who requested the RFP information. Each provider was asked how they would optimize an investment of $2 million pledged by the county.

Lewis Strategic originally proposed a $12 million program mostly funded by ISPs. The plan proposed to increase the county’s 5G towers from eight to 22.

This program was destined to multiply with an unexpected, massive state grant opportunity on the horizon.

On March 22, 2022, the project issued a request for potential cell tower locations; 64 were identified. This list was sent to the RFP recipients and municipal leaders.

In November 2022 they reissued the RFP, which resulted in seven strong proposals from providers in January 2023, Lewis said: Adams Cable, Blue Ridge Cable/Pen Tele Data, Hancock Telephone, ICON Technologies, Rise Up Towers, Telecom Capital Group and Upward Broadband.

Huge grant opportunity

In May 2023 the Pennsylvania Broadband Authority announced a $200 million grant opportunity.

Consequently, the Wayne Economic Development Corporation (WEDCO) submitted two grant applications to cover most rural and underserved households and businesses identified in the survey. WEDCO applied for $4,470,669 in grant funding requiring a provider match of $1,491,173. Rise Up Towers seeks $1.8 million to put up towers and fund long-term leases where towers would stand. ICON Technologies is seeking $2.5 million, of which the county is paying $326,000 as part of the match. Grant money would be used to expand ICON's fixed wireless broadband network within Wayne County.

Several broadband providers also applied for this state grant, which Lewis said brings the total to about $60 million. Some of their applications, however, contain some overlap in coverage, which Lewis said would not be funded under this grant.

Concurrently, Lewis said the county project is working with cell tower companies to have fiber installed and bring in 5G cellular communications. T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T have been working to install new towers in Wayne for years.

There are many areas across rural Wayne where cell service is lacking, Lewis said. One area is along the Upper Delaware River, where Lewis said part of the effort will concentrate.

Construction boom

Lewis said that thousands of workers will be needed for tower construction and fiber installation across 12 counties of northeast Pennsylvania, including as many as 50 in Wayne County. He said these jobs will be required by the grant source to pay the prevailing wage, which is $51 an hour, plus $27 an hour for fringe benefits. He said the county is working with ISP companies like Adams Cable, Blue Ridge Cable and others that train these workers, and regional community colleges to prepare the labor force needed quickly. With only two years to do the work, ISPs are getting ready in case their grant application is awarded. I.T. and cyber security workers as well as help center staff will also be needed.

Of interest: Four northern Pocono school districts want to share a career/tech education center

In addition to the Pennsylvania Broadband Authority grant, in about a year the ISPs will be able to apply for the federal Broadband, Equity, Access & Deployment (BEAD) grant, which provided $1.1 billion for Pennsylvania.

“These are unprecedented dollars and hopefully we can work with the state to maximize these opportunities for residents of Wayne County,” Lewis said. He added that they are anxious to learn how much of the project will be funded.

All grant applicants had to show they participate in the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) which provides subsidies for low-income households on broadband internet service. Applicants confirmed their proposals will not be subject to cost escalation or associated with a new subscriber rate or contract, he said. Eligible households could see $40 or $50 off.

Commissioner James Shook later added, “The way all the contracts we are looking at, potentially, if all the grants are awarded, potentially we are going to have some pretty good coverage by the end of 2026.”

Haves and have-nots

Lucyann Vierling, executive director of Wayne Pike Workforce Alliance said that COVID-19 sharply divided the "haves and have-nots" regarding public education. "Our children did not have the accessibility to education," Vierling said. "They were forced into parking lots and hot spots through the library, the school district, through our lovely firehouses, to try and engage in learning at a time when everyone was aghast because we did not know what it was that was ahead of us."

Affordability is also an issue. After-school programs, serving primarily low-income families, are held to increase children's education. "The learning loss that was obtained through this chaos is putting our children behind," she said. Most of these families had only "one device" at home, a cell phone. "And we talk about the dead-zones; no data plan."

Literacy is another concern. "You can't find a job without knowing how to use a computer. You cannot seek human services," Vierling said. The state requires a computer to seek unemployment compensation. "Our individuals are coming in flabbergasted; they don't know what to do," she said, faced with having to use a computer.

Workforce Alliance is partnering with the Wayne Library Alliance. Funded by a Labor & Industry grant, the Alliance is working at improving "digital literacy." Alliance Director Tracy Schwartz, said as one example, "One of my largest issues was having patrons coming into the library saying, 'I just want to pay my taxes, but I can't because it's online.'"

Grant funding pays for the computer teachers, who are helping patrons at the libraries. "Working together has provided us with an opportunity to bring people in who need these services but also to go out to them, because they are frightened and they don't know how to do this," Schwartz said.

Scott Miller, information technology director for Wayne Highlands School District, said they found during the COVID pandemic that they had households with poor or no broadband. The district established, and still has, hot spots in their school parking lots.

Every student, K-12, was allocated an Apple iPad for learning.

Some parents "say that is the only device in their home," Miller said. "We are finding now that students and parents are using that device the school is providing." If they don't have broadband, the student may download their lessons onto their iPad, go home and do their homework, and upload their work at school the next day.

Preston School in Lakewood, in northern Wayne County, is one of the district's biggest challenges to provide broadband. Miller said the district pays an exorbitant sum to pay for a one-gigabyte connection. Ten years ago, the district paid half a million dollars to provide fiber cable to their school. They share the service with the banks in Lakewood.

For more information on Wayne Tomorrow and the broadband project, visit waynetomorrow.com/343/Accelerate-Wayne.

Peter Becker has worked at the Tri-County Independent or its predecessor publications since 1994. Reach him at pbecker@tricountyindependent.com or 570-253-3055 ext. 1588.

This article originally appeared on Tri-County Independent: ISPs in Wayne seeking millions to improve broadband, cell coverage