Broadband mapping project: St. Croix County is making good progress
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
HUDSON — According to a broadband mapping project completed by Hometown Fiber, St. Croix County has “very good coverage” of fiber optic cable to provide internet connections to county residents.
Personnel from Hometown Fiber reviewed existing information, conducted field verifications and evaluated service levels to map broadband service in St. Croix County, said Mitch Gordon of Hometown Fiber at the St. Croix County Board’s February 6 meeting.
Quite a lot of broadband data is available, and some of it is good, and some of it is not so good, he said.
Hometown Fiber personnel drove up and down every road, looking for infrastructure that would be included in the report, Gordon said.
The broadband mapping project identified fiber optics, DSL, and digital subscriber lines, which are telephone lines. All together, 9,000 data points were identified, he said.
A total of 6,800 fiber optic data points were identified, some that serve homes, some that serve businesses and some that serve cellular telephone towers, Gordon said.
Cable television included 1,300 data points, which were located in the more populated areas of the county, he noted, adding that most properties in the county have a telephone line that could provide DSL internet service.
The download speed for DSL internet is one to 10 megabits per second, while fiber optic cable downloads up to 5,000 megabits per second, according to various sources on-line.
The map created by Hometown Fiber is an interactive map with various layers, and users can click on data points to obtain additional information, such as whether the property is served by fiber optic cable, co-axial cable or DSL, and the property owner’s name if the name was known, Gordon said.
Crews also took photographs of broadband infrastructure in St. Croix County. Four or five people collected field data over a seven day period last October, and the field data gathered, along with the existing data, were used to determine the service level available per property, he said.
The west side of the county seems to have more fiber to the premises than the east side of the county, according to the maps that Gordon showed to the St. Croix County Board.
The Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are “doing a great job of getting fiber out there,” Gordon said.
Additional service
How can St. Croix County use the data points that have been identified to encourage additional carriers to provide internet service to county residents? asked Paul Berning, county board supervisor.
There are telephone lines to nearly every property, and there is equipment that converts fiber to DSL internet service, Gordon said.
Is that “old school” Centurylink? How can carriers build off that? Or is the equipment just a check point going back to a data center somewhere? Berning asked.
Centurylink would not let another carrier use their lines because Centurylink is already providing DSL service, Gordon said.
The broadband map developed by Hometown Fiber is available now on Hometown Fiber’s server, but the company also is working to upload the map to St. Croix County’s GIS maps, he said.
Bob Long, chair of the St. Croix County Board, said his initial impression had been that St. Croix County’s internet coverage was not very good, but now he is concluding that the county has fairly good coverage.
St. Croix County has “very good coverage,” Gordon said.
Progress
The St. Croix County Board’s subcommittee for broadband mapping is happy with the progress, said Ken Witt, St. Croix County administrator.
In 2022, the St. Croix County Board authorized using $3 million of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds for broadband expansion, he said.
The county approved eight grants for ISPs in eight townships and has paid out on five of the eight grants, Witt said.
According to St. Croix County’s website, the grant projects will lay 393.8 miles of fiber optic cable and will provide high speed internet access to 3,482 properties.
Grants were awarded to Nextgen Broadband in the Towns of Cylon, Emerald and Erin Prairie; to Northwest Communications in the Towns of Richmond, St. Joseph, Stanton and Star Prairie; and to the Pierce Pepin Cooperative in the Town of Kinnickinnic.
The fiber optic projects funded by the county grants were 25 percent county grant, 25 percent from the company, and 50 percent of the project cost from state grants, noted one county board member.
The investment by St. Croix County of ARPA funds into broadband expansion has provided good results, Witt said.
“We are making good progress,” he said.
County board supervisor Rick Ottino said the broadband expansion is “good news” but that he believed the amount of money spent per home for broadband was “absolutely exorbitant.”
It was not clear if Ottino was referring to the $3 million in ARPA money that the St. Croix County Board approved for grants for broadband projects that he considered to be exorbitant.
A total of $3 million spent on 3,482 properties amounts to $862 per property.
The ISPs have written additional grant applications, so the broadband expansion “will continue to get better,” Witt said.
The $3 million spent by St. Croix County leveraged $12 million in infrastructure, he noted.
A $12 million investment in infrastructure to provide broadband expansion to 3,482 properties amounts to $3,446 per property.
No information was provided at the meeting about when the broadband mapping project would be included with St. Croix County’s GIS maps.
