Two local public utilities will partner in an upcoming project that will expand fiber-optic broadband internet service in rural areas of five north Georgia counties.
Amicalola Electric Membership Corporation (AEMC) will provide funding to expand broadband to selected areas of Gilmer, Pickens, Cherokee, Dawson and Lumpkin counties, while ETC will cover physical installation of the fiber-optic lines, confirmed ETC Chief Operating Officer Jason Smith.
“We currently service Gilmer, Pickens and Fannin, (as well as) some pieces of Cherokee and the Copper Basin area,” said Smith. “Amicalola’s footprint is a little different than ours. They also serve Dawson and Lumpkin, as well as more of Pickens and Cherokee than we do. We will become a (new) internet service provider in some of these areas. Not to say we’re going to cover those (entire) areas. We’re covering the routes Amicalola needs the service in. From there, we’ll be able to expand out.”
In Gilmer, specifically, the fiber-line installation should make it possible for more customers in certain areas to receive the high-speed service.
“For Gilmer, most of these locations we already have fiber (run) to. But, in some of them, they may need more fiber. We will be able to add more capacity and offer service to more customers on those routes going forward,” Smith said.
“In the communities that don’t currently have service, this allows service to be provided. In all these (project) areas, Amicalola would already be the power provider, but, in a lot of them, there’s not currently any broadband. There might be an internet service, but it’s not a fiber product. A lot of these areas are definitely underserved (in terms of internet), especially in the Pickens, Dawson and Lumpkin areas we’ll be serving.”
Passage of rural broadband legislation last year in the form of state Senate Bill 2 made it possible for Georgia electricity providers like AEMC to spend more money on broadband expansion, Smith confirmed.
“We’ve worked with Amicalola together on different things, and they were one of our first customers when we went to Jasper. They have a need for fiber service to a lot of locations to be able to better manage their system. For us, we look at it as a way to leverage some of the assets we currently have, and the funding Amicalola is putting into the project will allow us to build all this new fiber. We feel like it’s a huge thing for the overall area,” he added.
According to an ETC release, the project will give Amicalola improved communication between its substations and automated distribution equipment, thus improving power reliability for customers.
Todd Payne, president and CEO of Amicalola EMC, called the joint project “a win-win” for the electric company’s members.
“We’ve worked on joint projects for many years and we are happy to partner once again with a trusted and reliable provider like ETC,” Payne said. “We know that a lack of adequate internet access places a hardship on rural areas. We are excited about working with ETC to help bridge that broadband divide, while, at the same time, improving reliability to our members.”
The expansion will pertain only to fiber-optic internet service, not cable or other options, Smith noted. Once the new line is in service, ETC will also be able to use it to offer other services including cable TV and landline phone, he confirmed.
“(Partnering with Amicalola), it becomes more feasible for us to build the fiber out. Rather than them going out and building a whole new network to cover everything, we had about half of it already (covered). By partnering, they can get fiber in our existing network. We will also build this new network to get them service, and ETC can also provide service across the new network. It expands our footprint and it gets them service where they need it,” he said.
A dollar amount has not been set for the project, which is currently in pre-construction stages. Specific areas where the fiber line will be run in Gilmer County have also not been determined yet, Smith noted.
“Pre-engineering is complete and we’re finalizing fiber counts, locations and pathways. Right now, the issue we’re probably going to run into is that there’s a shortage of fiber. We’ll be placing orders right away, but, in some cases, there’s a 20-30 week lead time on fiber (supplies). The vast majority, if not 100 percent of it, will be aerial (line),” he added.
Residents in the project counties who are interested in receiving fiber-optic internet can visit ETCFiber.com to see if their location is in an area where ETC is looking to build, as well as register their interest in receiving the service.
ReConnect project in early stages
The multicounty joint project with AEMC is the second broadband expansion project announced by ETC this year.
In February, the Ellijay telecommunications provider received a $4.4 million ReConnect Grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that will allow it to run broadband internet service to several areas of the county that are considered underserved.
Smith said the ReConnect project and the AEMC partnership are two separate projects that will serve different parts of the county.
“The ReConnect project is ongoing, and we actually hope to start construction on it in the next 60 days. It’s taken longer than we anticipated, but field engineering is underway in a lot of the area. Our goal is to have construction complete by mid-2022, but we probably won’t finalize the installations until 2023,” he said.
“Broadband expansion is a national issue right now, and there’s lots of different legislation working toward it,” Smith added. “ETC is actively considering lots of different options. The (partnership with Amicalola) is one way we’re expanding broadband and ReConnect is another. There are also federal grants and, as more homes are built and density increases in certain areas, it becomes more feasible to expand service. There are a lot of puzzle pieces to it, but how broadband is going to get built is through (using parts of) all these different options.”