Date post: | 21-Jul-2016 |
Category: |
Documents |
Upload: | noah-garrett |
View: | 224 times |
Download: | 1 times |
Camden seeks Internet options
By Cindy Beamon
Staff Writer
Monday, March 30, 2015
REPLY TO COMMENT
CAMDEN — State Rep. Bob Steinburg, R-Chowan, said he will help Camden draft
legislation to open up more options for Internet service in underserved areas of the
county.
Complaints about no Internet service or slow-speed service are leading Camden to
explore alternatives, County Manager Mike Renshaw told Steinburg during the
lawmaker’s meeting with county commissioners last week.
“Expanding our broadband, we don’t we have a whole lot of control over the carriers
that come,” said Renshaw.
Commissioners asked Steinburg if the state is open to local governments becoming
more involved in offering services, especially to customers without Internet.
“Last-mile providers in northeastern North Carolina are putrid,” said Camden
Commissioner Clayton Riggs. “We’re stuck in a rut. There’s no competition.”
One Internet provider in the county said this week, however, that residents already
have Internet options.
Mediacom spokeswoman Phyllis Peters said most Camden residents have access to a
choice of broadband providers, including cable, satellite, digital subscriber line and
mobile wireless options. Mediacom is a top provider in the region because it offers
uniform broadband width for “reliably fast speeds,” she said.
However, commissioners and Steinburg both said Internet service in the region is
lacking.
Steinburg said living in rural North Carolina has definite advantages, but residents
have to put up with some inconveniences — Internet service being one. Current
providers in Camden have no competition because most likely no other company
thinks it’s worth the investment to provide service, he said.
“I’m not taking shots at Mediacom, but whenever there’s no competition, that is not a
good thing, in terms of pricing, in terms of service,” said Steinburg.
Steinburg recounted problems he had with Internet service before offering to help
Camden draft legislation allowing the county to provide Internet where there is none.
Renshaw said he hasn’t explored the cost but is interested in seeing if the county could
tap into fiber optic cable installed in late 2013 by Microelectronics Center of North
Carolina. The $144 million MCNC project was designed to expand computer
capabilities to schools, colleges and government buildings across the region and state.
“I think there is opportunity for local government, municipalities and counties, in the
event where carriers won’t provide the service for the ‘final mile’ that the county may
step in and do that,” said Renshaw.
MCNC is already providing Internet service to local and state government, including
the cities of Nags Head and Kill Devil Hills, Pitt and Craven counties and many
others, a MCNC official said Monday.
“Through public/private partnerships, MCNC has developed a backbone network
along with the necessary resources to work as a convener in Camden County and other
areas of the state to bring unique, open access broadband solutions and services into
this community,” said Jean Davis, MCNC president and CEO. “We are happy to work
with existing and future connectors to our North Carolina Research and Education
Network to identify and meet the broadband needs that are not currently being met to
help advance economic development opportunities and innovation in this area.”
Camden has no data on how many residents have no service or are underserved but is
working to find out those things. The county is on standby after hearing in spring 2014
about technical advice available under the N.C. Broadband Technical Assistance
Program, Renshaw said.
The state Department of Commerce has also begun a BizConnect Broadband Pilot
Grant to offset installation costs where current high-speed Internet is unavailable or
insufficient to meet a business’s needs.
Mediacom has no objection if county wants to extend service where it is not available,
said Peters.
“When the target is an unserved area, we’re fine with taxpayer-based initiatives,” she
said.
The company does not favor a county duplicating existing infrastructure, however.
“When governments choose to use taxpayer funds to compete in an area where private
business has already invested significant private capital and currently delivers the
service, we would not consider that to be a proper use of government involvement,”
said Peters.
The board’s request to Steinburg comes about a year after commissioners met with
Dan Stuhr, Mediacom’s director of operations, to discuss the company’s plans to
upgrade services. Some commissioners said then that they hoped the improvements
would reduce the number of customer complaints they received.
Riggs said Camden missed a chance to fill in service gaps about 10 years ago when it
received a federal grant to install wireless Internet to residents. Outcry by residents at
the time killed the idea, he recalled.
Now state law makes it more difficult for cities and counties to offer government-run
services. Three years ago, the North Carolina Legislature created so-called “level
playing field” restrictions to keep local governments from undercutting private
companies in offering Internet services.
Wilson, one of the few counties in the state that offers Internet services to residents
and businesses, filed a complaint asking the Federal Communications Commission to
override those restrictions. The FCC in February approved Wilson’s petition to
remove state restrictions that limited its ability to expand its broadband service.
Copyright 2014 Elizabeth City Daily Advance. All rights reserved
http://www.dailyadvance.com/comment/reply/2832373#comment-form