Efforts to get broadband in Perry County on hold

Broadband in Perry County is on hold for now because the state of Alabama has changed the requirements for the system causing a number of road blocks, according to Harry Slaughter of E-Footprints, the Pelham based company building a broadband network in the county. And it all comes down to good business sense and making it affordable to the end user, the citizens of Perry County.

The way the system works in a nutshell is a company like E-Footprint will design and engineer the network and put the equipment in place. But to get the service from their equipment to the user’s home requires an Internet Service Provider, which Slaughter said in this case is also E-Footprints. But they need entities like the local electric co-ops because they have the infrastructure to distribute to the homes. All business entities involved are doing this to make money. But they also want to keep the system affordable to the end user in order to get sustainable subscriptions.

The change in requirements is for the megabit rate of the system. Slaughter explained that the Federal Communications Commission definition of broadband is “anything over 23MB downstream and three megabits upstream.” The original state requirements were that the system be able to handle 25MB megabits downstream and 7MB upstream. “We were already exceeding the federal requirements but the state decided with all the broadband funds coming in to raise it to 100.” He said that was 100 both up and down. “It’s going to be a stretch to get 100 out to the rural areas.”

To get grants, ADECA requires that the system meets the state requirements. If E-Footprints builds the system under the old requirements, even though those were in place when the grant was awarded, the builder is essentially not complying with the ADECA rule that the system meet state requirements, which are different now, and therefore that company would not be eligible for any future funding from ADECA. So in order to get more funding, the system must meet current state requirements.

Slaughter said E-Footprint has already spent a year engineering the system under the original rules. “When they changed the rules they changed frequencies and other requirements. So we came up with a solution that can be throttled up to deliver 500 megabits to the home.” Although the current requirements from the state and for and ADECA grant are 100 megabits. He added “Not everybody is going to want to buy 100 megabits because it’s really going to be rather pricey. So we are working on way through other funding mechanism so we can reduce that cost so the people can afford it.”

Another problem is that Perry County, and many other rural counties in the Black Belt region, are seeing a negative growth rate. According to the Census, Perry County’s population as of April 1, 2010 was 10,591. As of April 1, 2020 Census shows the population to be 8,511. The estimated population as of July 1, 2021 is 8,355. Estimates for 2022 are not yet available but this is an overall average yearly negative growth rate between 2010 and 2020 of -2.1%. With this negative growth, investing over $7 million into the system without sustainable subscriptions to the service, does not make good business sense according to Slaughter. He also said not just for E-Footprints. “We’re meeting with the different folks we need to meet with like the electric co-ops. The problem is the one that serves part of Perry County doesn’t want to participate in all of this because it doesn't make good business sense.” So the entity with access to the infrastructure is not willing to participate. That does not mean it will not happen.

Slaughter said there needs to be “some type of structure that creates and starts working on a positive growth cycle. So we’ve been working with leaders throughout the state to help identify partners that we can bring in to help grow the county. We want an industrial park. We want reasons that the governor will send new business opportunities to Perry County.”

He add they have been working with Marion City government and could provide service to the city, “But that doesn’t help people outside the city. It doesn’t provide services like healthcare services, distant learning and continuing education services and services like that.” Slaughter said they are committed to bringing affordable quality broadband to Perry County but everyone will need to participate. Which he said includes county government and businesses all working together to bring positive growth potential. Slaughter said once these obstacles are overcome, broadband can be a reality.