February 11, 2022 County to negotiate with Comcast for Broadband Project
Full story here
GREEN COVE SPRINGS – Clay County Commissioners will negotiate with Comcast for the company to be the internet provider for the county’s large scale broadband project.
Assistant County Manager Troy Nagle said the Request For Proposals was sent Oct. 28 and county staff has had evaluations, meetings and presentations since then. The county has allocated $2 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds for the project and expects federal and state dollars.
However, the county’s figure is not enough to lay fiber for the whole targeted area, which includes portions of Middleburg near Blanding Boulevard, homes near County Road 301 and areas around Keystone Heights.
With Comcast, there would be a $9,987,130 cost to the county. They offer a base speed of 50/10 megabits per second for $9.95 a month and a maximum speed of 3 gigabits a second.
“Our interest is to be aggressive to serve as many residents in Clay County as possible and to stretch that investment,” Comcast Senior Director of Government and Regulatory Affairs Bill Ferry said.
Nagle said the county has a plan of how internet service would get to unserved areas, which set the county up for success as funds become available.
“It came down to the decision of do you do everything at a lower speed or do you start working on a piece of the county and get fiber and higher speed service to an area?” Nagle said.
Commissioner Betsy Condon said she had discussions with Rep. Kat Cammack’s staff and the congresswoman favored fiber and the fact the county has a plan rather than a loose concept of what it wants to do. She added that underserved areas have considerable data usage concerns and high costs.
“We know right now in these five areas we put up for bid, we have 17,000 homes that are either not served or underserved today,” Condon said.
Broadband is needed for the court system. Clerk of Court Tara Green said the state Supreme Court recently heard an oral argument about virtual hearings and she said by a certain date virtual hearings may be required for self-represented litigants.
“It’s a serious issue that they’re taking up statewide,” Green said.
Comcast building a network now will allow for higher speeds as more funding becomes available, County Commissioner Mike Cella added. Commissioner Jim Renninger said the high level of service is important for the county to prosper in the future.
BCC Chairman Wayne Bolla said the $9.9 million figure is to subsidize the internet deployment and there would still be a fee for residents. He said entering into negotiation with Comcast is the most progress the county has made on broadband in eight years.
“You’re still going to have to pay something for the internet service if you choose to buy it,” Bolla said. “We’re not talking about completely free internet here.”
The county is also asking residents to take the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity’s internet speed test, which can assist the state in spotting gaps in high-speed internet service. The test is available at floridajobs.org/broadband.