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ELECTRONIC SOLUTIONS, INC. |
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ELECTRONIC SOLUTIONS, INC. |
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CenturyLink Opposes Person County Broadband Project - Public Notice Filing - Click here to contact our elected officials Broadband USA Applications Database
Density of households unserved - Source: Connected Nation Data
Person County Broadband Coverage Map from e-NC.org
Want to get involved? Contact your elected officials below.
Brad Miller
Winkie Wilkins
Ellie Kinnaird
Also see our States advocates for bringing broadband statewide at www.e-nc.org |
PRESS RELEASE – Electronic Solutions, Inc. 11/16/09 CenturyLink Opposing Person County Broadband Project Electronic Solutions, Inc. (ESI) submitted a grant application to the Rural Utilities Service of the USDA Broadband Initiatives Program on August 14, 2009. This grant application requested funding to install and operate a wireless broadband Internet system serving the outlying areas of Person County that currently do not have high speed Internet options. The Person County High Speed Internet Committee and the County Commissioners endorsed this application for serving our citizens. Last week CenturyLink, formerly Embarq, submitted a Public Notice Response opposing the Person County broadband grant application. Randy King, President of ESI, has responded to the CenturyLink opposition: “We are extremely disappointed that CenturyLink has opposed the Person County project. The project would provide high speed Internet (broadband) in areas that currently do not have service in our county. CenturyLink as recently as April 2009 met with county officials and members of the public and stated that “they did not intend to expand DSL in low density areas which do not make economical sense”. ESI working with the Person County High Speed Internet Committee chaired by Commissioner Puryear submitted a grant application requesting funds to serve the areas not served by CenturyLink. We are now aware that CenturyLink is not only not going to serve these areas but is attempting to block anyone else from serving these areas. Our local and elected officials should be up-in-arms concerning CenturyLinks actions. Brad Miller, Ellie Kinnaird and Winkie Wilkins should be very concerned. The current Obama administration instituted the Broadband Initiatives Program to encourage companies such as ESI to expand services in underserved and unserved areas of rural America to afford all citizens the same opportunities for education and job growth as in metro areas. ESI took the initiative and shouldered the cost to submit the grant application containing over 100 pages of documentation and over 10 man weeks of effort to meet the requirements of the grant application. Current US census data was used along with broadband mapping data from E-NC.org and Connected Nation mapping data to identify underserved and unserved areas of Person County. The data points on this mapping were provided by CenturyLink and Charter Cable. We are providing this mapping data to the media for review. We (ESI) intend to continue to pursue this grant application for Person County and will provide additional information that further supports our case for funding. We encourage the private and public sector of Person County to contact your elected officials and voice your concerns in this matter.” Supporting Information Concerning the Person County Grant Application We have attached reference documents concerning this matter which include: • Executive Summary for Grant Application made by ESI • Public Notice Submission made by CenturyLink Opposing the Application • e-NC map data reflecting average coverage of broadband in Person County ref. www.e-nc.org • Density of Household mapping data from Connect Nation North Carolina ref. www.connectnorthcarolina.org ESI Responses to CenturyLink Opposition CenturyLink Point 1 CenturyLink is submitting data that shows the application’s proposed service area is not underserved or unserved, under program guidelines. ESI Response to Point 1 The broadband availability mapping is derived from input data from CenturyLink and Charter Communications in Person County. In reviewing the e-NC map, it is apparent that there is less than 50% broadband coverage in the southern part of Person County and that the majority of the county falls in the 50-69% coverage range. Connected Nation data reflects that the household density of the unserved homes is in the range of 1-40 households per square mile which is rural. ESI has on file hundreds of request for broadband service in Person County that cannot be filled at this time by DSL or cable Internet. Residents who have called CenturyLink inquiring about service availability have been told that they are not in areas currently scheduled for upgrade to DSL. CenutryLink Point 2 With limited funding and a large pool of applications, program grants and loans must be directed only to areas that are truly underserved or unserved, as stipulated in the program guidelines. ESI Response to Point 2 We agree that funds should be only used for residents and businesses that do not have any options for broadband. Person County has approximately 35-40% of the county that is currently not served. This equates to approximately 5000-6000 households. The USDA Rural Utility Service has appropriated $7.2B to expand broadband into underserved and unserved areas of the country. The intent of the grant is to fund expansion in rural areas that are not currently served as in Person County outlying areas. CenturyLink Point 3 CenturyLink can certify its affiliates currently offer broadband service in some of all of the applicant’s proposed service area. ESI Response to Point 3 The mapping data has been supplied by CenturyLink and Charter Communications clearly reflects noncovered areas in the outlying sections of Person County. CenturyLink can certify that “some” of the areas are overlapping which is a true statement but this is not reflective of the current service coverage or lack thereof. There will be some overlapping areas of service. ESI has identified several areas that currently have no broadband options which include; Mangum's Store area, Pot Luck Farm Road area, Hester’s Store area, Mayo Lake, Allensville area, Dirgie Mine Road area, Cunningham township, SW Hurdle Mills, High Plains area and portions of Hyco Lake such as Oak Pointe. (It should be noted that the local CenturyLink Office Manager does not have DSL broadband availability in his neighborhood at Oak Pointe at Hyco Lake). CenturyLink Point 4 We attach a representative sample of areas where the application overlaps our existing broadband deployment. ESI Response We agree there will be overlap due to wireless broadband not being discriminatory where radio signals reach. DSL is limited by the length of the telephone cable not to exceed 18,000’ due to technological limitations. Our intent and proposal is to cover unserved areas and there will be some spots where DSL or Cable service may exist. It should be noted that the wireless system will have at minimum 50-100Mbps capability at each tower site which far exceeds current DSL speed of 1-10Mbps. This allows customers to have sufficient bandwidth to have services such as VOIP, IPTV and streaming capabilities whereas DSL is not capable. Overlap of services is inevitable due to the sporadic coverage of DSL. CenturyLink Point 5 We will provide additional information on request if that will further assist the agency’s review. ESI Response to Point 5 Person County and area residents have been requesting street level coverage maps from CenturyLink and Charter for years without success. We welcome the ability to review these maps – the maps should be provided in color with speed capabilities identified down to the 911 address location. I’m sure the Courier=Times will publish those maps as soon as they receive them for public viewing. General mapping is already available online at www.e-nc.org and www.connectnorthcarolina.org We would also like the 911 addresses identified that do not have DSL service availability. This will resolve the coverage availability question. CenturyLink Point 6 This data further shows the applicant would duplicate and overlap existing broadband services in the proposed service areas. ESI Response to Point 6 CenturyLink does not have access to our detailed engineering design and therefore cannot identify areas of overlap. Our proposed tower sites are to be located in unserved areas mainly outside of the City of Roxboro. There are some overlap as wireless signal radiation is not discriminatory. If CenturyLink subscribes to a “no overlap” policy, then they should not be awarded any grants for expansion in currently served wireless areas. Summary It is the desire of ESI, the Person County High Speed Internet Committee and the County Commissioners to bring broadband services to all of Person County. This grant if approved will provide badly needed services to all our residents, businesses and governmental facilities. CenturyLink has made a business decision to not serve these outlying sections of Person County and has indicated so in person and in phone contacts with customers. The public will be best served if the RUS approves this grant application. |
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