News Photo by Reagan Voetberg Bruce Honeycutt surfs the internet at Turn the Page Bookstore recently.

ALPENA — Northeast Michigan lacks efficient broadband access, but projects both on a national and local scale aim to change that and spur economic development efforts in the Alpena area.

In summer 2023, 24% of homes in Alpena County, 47% of homes in Presque Isle County, 37% of homes in Montmorency County, and 35% of homes in Alcona County lacked internet with download and upload speeds the federal government considers minimal, according to data from the Federal Communications Commission.

Erik Frederick, chief connectivity officer at the Michigan High Speed Internet Office, is leading the efforts to connect everyone to the internet from city to countryside in Michigan. He is in charge of allocating federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment — known as BEAD — funds to entities around Michigan that will help close the digital divide.

BEAD is a national program funding broadband infrastructure projects across the country.

Internet access “impacts nearly every sector of our lives,” Frederick said. “It is a foundational tool.”

With high speed internet access, it is estimated that households and businesses could save $1.8 billion to $2.7 billion annually, Frederick stated.

The biggest barrier to connecting Michigan is geographic location.

The majority of the approximately 500,000 households that lack efficient internet access in Michigan are located in rural areas. Other geographic obstacles preventing the installation of broadband infrastructure include waterways and areas with rock beds close to the surface, said Frederick.

Frederick stated that BEAD is set to clean up the areas that similar grant programs have left without internet. Broadband networks are not designed to target specific locations, making it difficult to reach rural households.

BEAD intends to bring high-speed internet to these areas, despite the obstacles.

Primarily, BEAD focuses on infrastructure, but there are other facets that go into ensuring digital equity, Frederick stated. People also need access to the devices themselves and the skills to use those devices.

Digital equity is central to the work at the state internet office, Frederick said. All challenges need to be addressed.

“We can’t just stop at infrastructure,” he said.

“It’s like water,” Mike Mahler, economic development director at the Alpena Area Chamber of Commerce, said of the internet. “Everyone expects it everywhere they go. I think broadband fits in that same category.

If fiber isn’t available in an area, then incoming businesses or households are not going to spend the money to live and work there, he said.

In Alpena proper, broadband access is in a good spot. In fact, Mahler is concerned about households and businesses in the area having more options than necessary.

One company working to install broadband access across Northeast Michigan is the Presque Isle Electric and Gas Co-op. The co-op began connecting customers to the internet in 2021. As of March 20, there were 3,800 active internet accounts.

Doug Cheek, chairman and director of the Alcona County Economic Development Committee, said that, in a case study of a county similar to Alcona County, it was shown that implementing broadband access caused significant increases in every aspect of economic activity and opportunity.

The Alcona County Economic Development Committee has entered a public-private partnership with Cherry Capital Connections to improve Alcona County’s broadband infrastructure.

“Infrastructure is poor in Alcona County,” Cheek said.

Cherry Capital and Cheek’s committee were heavily involved in the pre-registration period of BEAD and are part of the application process for funding now.

Nearly 3,500 locations in Alcona are eligible for BEAD funding. The partnership’s initiative is to build an open access network that will be available for internet providers to use to service customers. The open access network is intended to lower the price of internet access as providers do not have to build their own network but instead just have to join the one that Cherry Capital builds, Cheek said.

Looking to the future, Cheek said that, in the best-case scenario, Alcona County officials will get “the shovel in the ground” this summer. He estimates it will take about two years to build the infrastructure in Alcona County and about five years total to clean up loose ends. However, changes in the federal administration due to the recent election could change the BEAD timeline.

Overall, Cheek said, “Alcona is in a good position.”

Tim Maylone, the CEO of Cherry Capital, said that BEAD creates a “good foundation” for building accessible broadband. However, future innovation will reveal flaws in infrastructure that will require a second or even a third round of programs like BEAD, Maylone said.

Currently, projects are in need of a larger labor force. A lack of labor makes getting projects done in the four years prescribed by BEAD “a tight timeline”, Maylone said.

“The demand for internet is not going down,” said Maylone. “We are excited to be a part of all that.”