Writer: Sharon Swanepoel
Published February 3, 2022
Your Local News
In Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s announcement earlier this week of almost $408 million in preliminary awards to help provide access to faster and more reliable broadband to communities, households, and businesses, Walton County was one of the recipients.
Walton County is slated to receive $3,159,215.00. The funds are a result of a grant application on behalf of Windstream,” Walton County spokesperson Patrice Broughton said.
In the grant application, it was noted that the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent shutdowns had dramatically highlighted the need for some of Walton County residents to have better access to adequate broadband access.
“Patterns of daily life were disrupted as many businesses shut their doors and others directed employees to work from home. Teachers, students and parents scrambled to cope with unexpected demands of remote learning. Families in Walton County areas without adequate broadband service struggled to cope with the lockdown of community life,” the application stated. “To earn a needed paycheck or to allow children to keep up with school studies, many families found themselves driving long distances to sit in parking lots where public Wi-Fi was available. Students faced difficulties keeping up with their peers.“
In the application, target locations were determined by using the Georgia Broadband Access map showing which areas were determined to be unserved, served or with no locations and then windstream extracted location date from the unserved areas a Windstream developed a project proposal to ensure that all unserved locations in the project would receive access to high-speed broadband.
This proposal would provide “symmetric gigabit-speed broadband access to 2,078 unserved locations in the Walton County areas most lacking in connectivity. In extending gigabit-speed broadband opportunities for these unserved homes and businesses, some additional nearby locations will benefit from the fiber installation, bringing the total number of impacted locations to 4,084 within the targeted project areas.“
The total capital investment would be about $8,793,158 of which the $3,159,215 would come from the state Local Fiscal Recovery Fund. The remaining $5,633,943 would come from Windstream who would design, engineer, construct and operate the fiber optic network.
Kemp said these funds from the American Rescue Plan Act would amount to a total investment of more than $738 million when matching funds are contributed.
“I am very proud that Georgia is once-again leading the nation in developing collaborative, innovative, and fiscally conservative ways to leverage government funding to positively impact and serve as many Georgians as possible,” Kemp said in the press release when he announced the awards. “I want to thank all of the members on the Broadband Infrastructure Committee as well as the grants team at the Office of Planning and Budget, and the broadband and special projects team at the Georgia Technology Authority for working together to score applications and recommend projects that reflect the greatest needs and interests of hardworking Georgians. We look forward to the positive impact these projects will have once completed. I ran on a promise to bring opportunity to rural Georgians. If you look at the map of Georgians who will now have access to rural broadband, you will see a promise kept.”
Based on data from the Georgia Broadband Availability Map, as of July 2021, 482,374 locations in Georgia are currently unserved as of July 2021.
The Department of Community Affairs, and the Carl Vinson Institute of Government, the Georgia Broadband Availability Map were used as resources that helped the state identify the necessity of these projects. Focus was placed on selecting projects that will help maintain a level playing field for private sector competition, also taking into account parallel funding streams available for broadband access or expansion – like the Federal Communications Commission’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF). Geography was also considered in order to disperse funds in an equitable manner.
In addition to this investment, the FCC’s Rural DOF program has awarded $326 million in funding that will also bring service to almost 180,000 unserved locations in the coming years. As can be seen by the map below, Gwinnett County is almost 100 % served but Walton County is still lacking in some areas.
