Broadband Update - Nov 11, 2022

Jeff Lee, LittleT Broadband

Though there are still many things happening related to broadband in Macon County, it has been relatively quiet for the past month or so without major headlines and big public announcements.

South Macon

The South Macon Broadband Project continues to evolve, though at a slower pace than earlier this year. The community facility public hot spots are all active and we have been able to expand high-speed internet service into the fire department offices both in Otto and Scaly Mountain. BalsamWest is steadily working to connect businesses along 441, and is beginning to do so now in Scaly Mountain.

Residential expansion is beginning to happen in South Macon, but very slowly. The original hope was that state grant funding would allow this expansion to move more quickly. Since no state grants have been awarded for this project, communities can only be addressed one-by-one and street by street.

If you live near the new fiber backbone or in an area served by a another provider and wish to see expansion of high-speed service into your community, please contact LittleT through the Contact Us form on the website. We can discuss your area, the requirements to get such a project going, and help make contact with the appropriate provider.

GREAT Grant

Frontier, the GREAT grant winner for Macon County in 2022, is currently in a holding pattern on their deployment effort. All GREAT grant awardees state-wide are waiting on NCDIT (North Carolina Department of Information Technology) to develop and finalize grant agreements. Grant award funding does not flow and providers will not start building until these are finalized.

The hope is that these agreements will be completed by the end of the year so that Frontier can begin construction in early 2023. They will have until Dec 31, 2024 to provide fiber service to 2700 location county-wide. Once a grant agreement is in place, we will be working with Frontier to learn and publish their timeline for construction around the County.

Other Activities

The Macon County Broadband Committee is continuing to explore new opportunities for broadband expansion around the County. The NC CAB grant program will be starting up after the first of the year, and we are actively looking at areas were these funds might be applied. The Committee is also exploring the possibility of developing a project similar to the South Macon effort in another part of the County.

GREAT Grant Award for Macon County

Jeff Lee, LittleT Broadband

On August 31st, the NC Department of Information and Technology announced a third round of grants for the GREAT grant program. For Macon County, an award was granted to Frontier Communications.

https://www.ncbroadband.gov/news/press-releases/2022/08/31/gov-cooper-announces-206m-great-grants-expand-internet-access-69-counties-across-state

Frontier’s application proposes to serve 2700 locations across the county (North, Central, and South) with new fiber to the home (premises) service. Per the rules of the GREAT program, Frontier will have until Dec 31, 2024 to complete this project and provide service to the above locations.

The Macon County Broadband Committee will be meeting with Frontier representatives in the coming weeks to go over their plans and build timeline in detail. As these discussions progress, agreements are signed, and more details become available, we will provide updates on how this program will affect Macon residents.

BalsamWest South Macon Fiber Press Release

Please find the attached press release from BalsamWest.

BalsamWest Press Release HOT 

Scaly Mountain Community Facilities Internet is Live!

Jeff Lee, LitteT Broadband

I am excited to announce that the new high-speed fiber service at both the Scaly Community Center and Sky Valley-Scaly Mountain Volunteer Fire and Rescue is live. The fiber connections were completed last Friday, and networks were officially activated yesterday afternoon. The fiber service available now at these locations is standard consumer 1Gbps internet service from Balsam West.

The Scaly Mountain Community Association will be making announcements in the coming days to set up times of availability and to discuss other programs on which they may be working to develop for the community.

The Otto Community Center High-Speed Internet is Live!

Jeff Lee, LittleT Broadband

I am excited to be posting this update from the newly connected Otto Community Center. The connection was officially activated this morning via a standard consumer 1Gbps fiber service from Balsam West. This new high-speed broadband connection will be shared between the Otto Community Center and Otto Volunteer Fire and Rescue. The Otto Community Development Organization will be making announcements in the coming days to establish times of availability for public WiFi, and to discuss other programs that they may offer to the community.

Work is in progress to get fiber connected and hotspots fully operational at both the Scaly Mountain Community Center and Sky Vally-Scaly Mountain VFR. We hope to have the hotspots at both of these facilities operational early next week.

Update on the South Macon Project

Jeff Lee, LittleT Broadband

I am happy to report that there has been some progress in recent weeks towards the completion of the new fiber backbone network in the South Macon area. Balsam West and the Otto Community Development Organization signed an easement agreement a couple of weeks ago which will allow Balsam West to place an equipment hut on the Otto Community Center property. A similar agreement has been made between Haywood EMC and Balsam West in Scaly Mountain across from the fire station.

Equipment huts in Otto and Scaly are necessary to allow completion of the fiber backbone and support expansion into the surrounding communities. With the agreements in place Balsam West has been working on construction of the foundation for the hut in Otto, and plans to start on the Scaly hut next week. With utility location marking complete, we anticipate fiber to be pulled up Firehouse Road to the new hut in Otto in the next week or two. Fiber will follow in similar fashion in Scaly Mountain after the Scaly hut is ready there.

Once the equipment huts are in place and connected to the backbone, fiber can then be extended to the Otto Community Center, Scaly Mountain Community Center, and the Sky Valley, Scaly Mountain Fire facility. Activation of fiber service to these three facilities will signify that the new backbone is live. Shortly after, our network hotspot contractor Wired Inc. of Franklin will complete the hotspot connections and allow us to start offering public wifi access at these locations, and high-speed fiber service to the Otto and Scaly fire station facilities.

We are excited to be nearing the completion of this project.

Where’s My StarLink Terminal?

Jeff Lee, LittleT Broadband

The SpaceX StarLink program continues to attract press and make progress. SpaceX has continued its aggressive launch schedule to place new satellites in orbit, and each addition to the Low Earth Orbit satellite constellation improves the coverage area and quality of service. There have been many announcements about StarLink mobile service (for RVs), service for airlines, the ability to move your terminal to a new location, and of course the StarLink deployment in Ukraine.

Though StarLink claims the service to be out of beta testing and now deploying commercially, the number of StarLink users remains small, especially in our area. I have received emails from a couple of individuals who have received StarLink terminals in the Otto area, and in general they seem to be happy with the service (especially compared to the alternatives). However, receiving a StarLink terminal right now seems to be a bit like winning the lottery, as there is far more demand than StarLink has been able to fill.

We have personally had an order and deposit for StarLink service on the books for about 15 months now. It is certainly frustrating to continue waiting with no real updates, and when we log into the StarLink website to check the status continues to say "Starlink expects to expand service into your area by late 2022". Friends have asked if we have received our terminal yet, and all I can tell them is “No, I believe ours was sent to Ukraine”. My hope is to get the StarLink service in the near future to provide a higher speed solution than the current 1Mbps DSL service as we wait for fiber to arrive in our area. I know that if we drop our deposit there will be little chance of acquiring access to StarLink for years, effectively taking that option off the table.

From the statistics that I have seen, StarLink had about 250,000 active subscribers as of February. I have also seen a recent statistic of 800,000 orders waiting to be filled. I am hopeful that they will work through the chip shortages and coverage area limitations that are claimed to be holding them back.

For those of us waiting to use this as a connectivity option, for now patience continues to be the only option.

  1. Opportunities for Broadband Expansion
  2. Regional Broadband Meeting
  3. NTIA and StarLink
  4. February 2022 - Where is our High-Speed Internet?

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