Steve Mensing, Editor
♦ Just read an article in the print version of the Salisbury Post that discussed the alleged lack of internet and WIFI to rural areas out in the county. Somehow our economic and tourism people forgot to mention two internet providers out in the county: Windstream (really big out there) and Hughes.net a satellite internet provider that can reach most any rural farmhouse in the county. They are not the fastest or the cheapest, but someone can get 10 Mbps down and 2 up from them, send emails and files with their services. Unless someone has a house behind a bluff or cliff that might block a satellite signal, they can get satellite internet in any rural area of Rowan County.
From what I’m told Time Warner Cable is generally sympathetic with running cable out to neighborhoods in sparsely populated areas of the county requesting it.
Windstream, not mentioned in the article, is a major provider to Rowan County. AT&T has coverage in many areas of Rowan.
Branches of the Rowan Public Library, which have excellent high-speed TWC internet, are available daily (save for Sunday) for FREE.
This morning several emails arrived at the Rowan Free Press mentioning the possibility that Fibrant might go out into the county. For Fibrant to make an ill-advised junket out into the county several very major and expensive hurdles would have to be cleared:
• The besieged tax and utility payers of Salisbury would take another major hit for the construction/expansion costs of going out into rural Rowan. The county would not be stuck with that bill–the residents of Salisbury would take that hit alone. Fibrant has a rough time selling their services to the city of Salisbury, let alone thinking about going rural. Fibrant is a debacle. They are outgunned and outmanned by four deep-pocketed privates in Salisbury: TWC, DISH, AT&T U-verse, and DirecTV. People never went much for super high-speed internet in the Bury especially with a contract.
• The aldermen of the various municipalities would need to approve the expansion into their turfs. To many people in the county Fibrant’s name is absolute poison.
• Fibrant has no real money in the till to build out into the county although they have some old and unattended fiber optic lines running into China Grove and Granite Quarry that were put up during the Treme era. Going out into the county would incur the city of Salisbury, running on fumes financially, even more debt.
• Fibrant will likely get smacked upside the head by Moody’s Bond rating in a few months when Fibrant fails to pay back the city’s water and sewer funds to the tune of 7.6 million dollars. Fibrant’s failure to pay back those reserve funds will no doubt result in Salisbury, N.C. achieving junk bond status. Not good, but well-deserved by one of those most irresponsible municipal governments in North Carolina.
• If anyone dwelling in Salisbury is concerned about being mangled even more by Fibrant and city hall, call or email Rep. Marylyn Avila, Andrew Brock, Carl Ford, and Harry Warren about rescinding some of Salisbury’s special municipal broadband protections. Salisbury needs to fork over all of their paperwork going back to the Treme era so the public can have a full accounting of the “debacle”. Millions of unaccounted for dollars need a through accounting.
Improving WIFI coverage ought not be an monumental undertaking. That’s something to be taken up by providers.
Hughes.Net:
Windstream.com
