While parts of Jefferson and Wayne counties in Illinois can’t get a consistent cellular signal, the area’s broadband provider is offering up high-speed fiber optic access to any rural customer that requests it, thanks to a grant and loan from USDA Rural Development.

Fiber optic access will be built out over the next five years, says Barry Adair, general manager and executive vice president of the Wabash Telephone Cooperative. He says they aim to finish within two to three years but have up to five under the USDA agreement.

The co-op is funding half of the $12.6 million project in part to help farmers reliant on spotty satellite signal. With broadband connection planned for areas that previously had none, farmers will be able to transfer data gathered by sensors on their equipment either when they get back to the shop, or by installing relay stations closer to the field.

While cell signal will still be spotty, fiber optic connections will be available to any customer that requests it within the next five years. From roadside access points, the high-speed signal can be run to houses and shops, and even bounced to outbuildings with Wi-Fi bridges.

“We’d love it if one of these big cellular companies would put up a new tower to cover these areas in Jefferson and Wayne counties where you can’t get a good signal. But having the fiber certainly helps with Wi-Fi calling and data transfer,” Adair says.

This isn’t the first time the Wabash co-op has gotten a grant from USDA. It’s in the middle of one of the largest underserved areas in the state, but with the help of USDA’s ReConnect Pilot Program, 1,650 homes, 31 farms, a health care center and everything else within 168 square miles are getting access to high-speed internet.

Adair intends to apply for a second phase of funding to build out internet access outside of the Jefferson and Wayne county area. Applications for the ReConnect program, which has given out $230 million since it was authorized in 2018, will be accepted again beginning Jan. 31.

“We’ll build up to the boundaries of this grant area, and we’ll edge out from there to try to get some more customers,” Adair says.

In Wayne County, the telephone co-op says it will partner with the Wayne-White Electric Co-op to use its pole attachments to reach deep into rural areas as they lay fiber optic main lines and routes.

Expanding investment

Doug Wilson, state director of USDA Rural Development, says more ReConnect-funded broadband projects are on the horizon for Illinoisans, though applications are still being reviewed. Between May 31 and July 12 in 2019, 146 applicants in areas with “insufficient internet service” requested a total of $1.4 billion in funding from the three funding arrangements USDA offers.

Insufficient service is defined as connection speeds of less than 10 megabits per second download and 1-megabit upload. It exists in pockets throughout rural Illinois, as Wilson can attest to from his third-generation farm in Gridley.

“There is a good deal of Illinois with insufficient coverage. That’s why we’re excited to be involved in broadband. USDA Rural Development has been a player in this for a number of years, but with the ReConnect program, we’ve got a much larger amount of money that we can invest,” Wilson says, referring to five smaller broadband programs USDA offers, including one that supports technology investments in real-time medical consulting and teaching.

Wilson says he thinks precision agriculture plays an important role in incentivizing internet providers to expand rural access to high-speed internet, as do loans and grants from USDA. Laying a couple of miles of fiber to reach one house, while uneconomical, can start paying off if the fields along that path become customers. USDA’s low-interest loans help, too.

“The overall reality is that there are places in Illinois where you may not have good signal, maybe it’s intermittent,” he says, recalling viral Facebook posts where a tractor lost signal and the unsuspecting driver ended up in a ditch or colliding with a pole.

“Those types of things happen, but my impression is it’s happening less and less. And the technology is getting more sophisticated. Precision ag is getting really common in ag life, and we need to develop our broadband communication backbone to support it,” Wilson concludes.