DeSoto County to subsidize Internet infrastructure to underserved areas
Christie Barclay, the county’s community resource director, conducted an analysis of about 70,000 households in DeSoto County that pinpointed clusters of areas that lack high-speed Internet. (Toni Lepeska/The Daily Memphian)
DeSoto County is closer to providing a subsidized extension of high-speed Internet to households that don’t have adequate access to the information highway.
The Board of Supervisors on Monday authorized advertising for bids after finalizing research on the project to get service to approximately 3,700 underserved households.
The $10 million that the county will use is from the federal American Rescue Plan Act. It is just one funding source to finally get broadband to the households. Dist. 4 Supervisor Lee Caldwell has worked on bettering access to high-speed Internet in DeSoto County for a decade.
“Anything below 100 Mbps is counted as underserved,” Caldwell said. “The more people who are online at one time, the more pull on power.”
Caldwell’s district, generally west of Southaven and Hernando, contained the most unserved or underserved households in the county.
The urgent nature of adequate Internet service was driven home by the COVID-19 pandemic when millions of people sheltered in their homes. The Internet had become a critical tool to access education, health care and other essentials of daily living.
DeSoto County worked on the Internet issue before the pandemic, but the effort has gained a lot of ground since 2020.
This year, Christie Barclay, the county’s community resource director, finished a household broadband analysis to determine which providers are closest to households without adequate service. Her office inputted about 70,000 addresses into service provider websites as part of the survey.
The county’s $10 million won’t go to individual households. It will go to Internet service providers to subsidize the installation of infrastructure to get service to neighborhoods.
“We’re not paying for service,” Barclay clarified.
Households will not be obligated to purchase Internet service from the providers. The primary providers are AT&T, Xfinity and C-Spire.
In addition to service providers putting skin in the project, the state of Mississippi also is offering grants to providers.
One of the grants provides up to a 50% match with ARPA funds. They’ll be needed. The entire investment in DeSoto County to underserved households is estimated to be up to $35 million.
The county will begin accepting bids from Internet service providers on Thursday. The bid process will close Dec. 13.
Topics
Internet providers DeSoto County Lee Caldwell Christie BarclayToni Lepeska
Toni Lepeska is a freelance reporter for The Daily Memphian. The 34-year veteran of newspaper journalism is an award-winning essayist and covers a diversity of topics, always seeking to reveal the human story behind the news. Toni, who grew up in Cayce, Mississippi, is a graduate of the University of Mississippi. To learn more, visit tonilepeska.com
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