Thanks to Bernadine Joselyn for the heads up on an article, Co-ops Make Rural Broadband Possible published by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. The article highlights the role that co-operatives have played in deploying broadband in rural Georgia…

“The electric co-ops represent possibly the greatest potential for expansion of really good infrastructure in rural America,” Pealock said, explaining how it’s a natural fit for co-ops to be infrastructure providers.

“It’s very synergistic for our linemen to hang cable, to lift the hardware up,” Pealock said. “The splicing is very natural for them.”

The network now includes “hundreds of businesses,” all of the more than 45 schools in the region, as well as a university, four colleges and five hospitals.

“It’s been a natural magnet of interest to the business community,” Pealock said. “I think they see this as tremendous infrastructure.”

Benefits for the co-ops include being able to install high-definition security video at substations, and improved communications for employees in the field.
And the membership? So far, some 2,000 homes are connected and “they really love the service,” Pealock said.

The network is open access, and third-party providers are being encouraged to offer voice, video and wireless services.

We’ve talked about the role of co-ops and independent providers in the past. Most recently I think folks who follow broadband in Minnesota were able to see the potential role for co-ops in Sibley County. When Sibley County decided to back off a fiber project with Renville County, it was the Farmers Co-op that stepped forward to express an interest in looking at how they could help bring broadband to the area.