On Dec. 2, the state Legislature’s Fiscal Committee approved $65 million dollars in federal funding to build out New Hampshire’s internet infrastructure in towns like Hancock and others across the state.
The money includes $40 million for the Broadband Connect Program, which aims to provide service to the most-rural parts of the state lacking internet service.
Mollie Miller, chair of the Hancock Telecommunications Committee, said that the release of this money was crucial to bring high-speed, reliable internet to many unserved rural residences in the state. She, along with other representatives from towns across the state, had written a letter to the Fiscal Committee stating their disappointment with the committee’s decision to table the $40 million at a meeting Nov. 18.
“The unserved residents and businesses in our communities have been waiting decades for high-speed internet,” the letter stated. “This cannot wait.”
Miller said the release of the money is “make-or-break for all of us,” including people from different towns around the state. “It’s huge.”
“I understand [the Fiscal Committee] had concerns, but the government had instructions to release the money as quickly as possible,” she said, explaining the Fiscal Committee had legitimate questions about over-building with government money. “They were understandably concerned the money wasn’t going through the Broadband Matching Grant Initiative and that there would be over-building. We’re hoping to have build-out by end of 2023 with Consolidated Communications (CCI) using some of the recently approved money.”
The funds approved Dec. 2 serve as the second round of funding for a $122 million government program as a response to the pandemic. In a letter supporting the latest proposal of $40 million, Gov. Chris Sununu stated it would have similar impacts as a $50 million bid awarded to the New Hampshire Electric Cooperative in October, which would build out broadband to approximately 23,000 locations.
“From Hancock’s and other towns’ perspective, a year makes a huge difference,” Miller said. “I have an adult kid who can’t visit me because they need broadband to work.”
Miller said Hancock is now waiting for another round of funding to be released by CCI.
“We’re hoping this happens by the end of year,” she said, explaining that towns with higher percentages of unserved populations are chosen by companies such as CCI for build-out because of the lack of return on their investment and the necessity of high service fees. This, she said, is the reason federal money is so important for towns like Hancock.
The reason that many residents in the Monadnock region have received high-speed internet is because their towns had unserved populations of 80 to 90 percent, Miller added.
“Hancock’s number is too low and CCI won’t tell you what the percentage is to be chosen by the service provider for build-out,” she said.
Without high-speed internet, Miller said holding Zoom meetings or even streaming content on Netflix can be very difficult.
“We have to turn everything off just to watch a movie. To be unserved in 2022 is to live a life without a fundamental utility,” she said.