Hopewell, Comcast strike deal for total broadband access in township

HOPEWELL TWP. — The “digital divide” cuts deep and wide across South Jersey, but a partnership of this rural township and Comcast Corp. promises to allow broadband access everywhere here by early 2024.

Hopewell and Comcast will carry out a roughly $1.5 million project to extend existing broadband service to every corner of the township and its approximately 4,400 residents. The timetable places the completion date for the first-of-its-kind project 14 months from now.

“Obviously, I’m very excited to be part of the team that’s been able to bring broadband to the entirety of Hopewell,” Mayor Paul Ritter said. “Now, someone can live in Hopewell Township and work anywhere in the country. This is something that the township has been working toward for 10 years.”

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Ritter and township Administrator Leo Selb said that decade-long push owes much to Greg Facemyer, first as a committeeman and finally as deputy mayor. New Jersey government was an obstacle, he said.

“He was extremely instrumental in making this happen, in the sense he was ‘at it,’” Selb said. “He persevered. He went up and fought with BPU (Board of Public Utilities) originally. Back and forth. There were many battles.”

Facemyer finished his last day as a township official at the start of the year, retiring from politics.

Ritter and Facemyer said the COVID-19 pandemic really energized the push for 100 percent township access. Areas not served by Internet cable have had to struggle along with wireless coverage, if they could find it.

“And it’s such a great impact to a small community like ours because now we can at least compete with other businesses,” Facemyer said. “The students don’t have to go to their grandparents or a relative that does have broadband to complete tests or do their studies because at their (own) homes it’s so unreliable if they’re in an unserved area.”

The agreement, which was announced Dec. 15, also effectively rejects a competing Internet access development concept from Cumberland County. The county proposes building its own broadband infrastructure to cover Cumberland and Salem counties.

“So, the long and the short of it is the county has a very, much more complicated approach to it,” Facemyer said. “Instead of the county going to Comcast and saying, ‘Do a survey of Cumberland County and tell us who is unserved.’ And they can do that through their records and their engineering department. They did it with Hopewell.”

In September, Comcast officially declined to support that proposal. Comcast, responding to a county request for its backing, evaluated the initiative as not meeting the true internet access needs of the area and also as unlikely to be financially viable.

Ritter and Facemyer said the lack of access in the township, a very rural and agricultural area covering almost 30 square miles, also has been a killer to real estate activity and values. That was another major factor in the Comcast agreement, they said.

“We have had numerous circumstances where residents have contracted to sell their homes and the buyer, in their due diligence prior to settlement, find out that some residents don’t have broadband or cable TV or the Internet,” Facemyer said. “They’ve backed out of real estate transactions because they work from home or whatever reason they certainly want broadband. And now with this buildout, I think the values of the homes will improve.”

A town hall for residents who could sign up for service will be held at Hopewell Crest School on Sewall Road, starting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 10, and will have Comcast representatives to talk about the project.

Selb said there are at least 144 houses that are unserved now, along with 13 businesses. There will be no connection fee to potential customers with properties 300 feet or less from utility poles that will carry the new lines, he said.

Selb said 22 houses and three businesses fall outside the 300-foot zone, by varying margins. Those owners would have decisions to make about cost versus access, he said.

The project starts with at least several months of engineering work and obtaining approvals and easements. The construction will be covered by three sources of funding, including money from an approximately $1.08 million bond the Township Committee approved in September 2022.

Selb says not all the bond will be used because of the other funding pieces available. The project total cost is $1,509,977.

Comcast is putting up $407,694 or 27 percent of the cost. The company was the only one to respond when Hopewell sought Requests for Proposals from broadband providers.

Federal money amounts to $445,492, an award from the American Rescue Plan.

Selb said the township end should be $656,791 or 43.5 percent.

“It is in phases,” the administrator said. “And the first phase is specifically engineering money ... that they (Comcast) will pay for. They are going to pay up all those costs until their funds have been exhausted. Then, once we get past those funds, the next step will be to go to American Rescue Plan funds.”

Selb said one challenge in getting to a deal with Comcast was getting the company to understand New Jersey law on government contracting.

“So, that was a long process,” Selb said. “That wasn’t easy. And now, every town will benefit from our forging through the waters to make it happen."

Selb said Maurice River Township recently finalized a very similar agreement with Comcast. Other communities also have been in contact with questions about Hopewell’s experience, he said.

In a letter in September to Cumberland County, Comcast said the Federal Communications Commission estimates 2.7 percent of homes in Cumberland County are not in reach of “fast, reliable wired broadband networks” and another 21.6 percent could have service but do not subscribe.

Ritter said the importance of broadband access today is comparable to access water and sewer services.

According to Comcast, residents will have access to its Xfinity suite of internet products, “including supersonic WiFi technology” and Flex entertainment platform.

The project also is touting to residents the availability of the federal Affordable Connectivity Program. The program provides low-income households a credit of up to $30 per month toward their internet and mobile services.

Joe Smith is a N.E. Philly native transplanted to South Jersey more than 30 years ago, keeping an eye now on government in South Jersey. He is a former editor and current senior staff writer for The Daily Journal in Vineland, Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, and the Burlington County Times.

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This article originally appeared on Vineland Daily Journal: Hopewell, Comcast partner for total home, business broadband access