Letter: Need tangible returns

keyboard, letter to the editor

To the Editor:

Page 4 of the March 2 issue describes a plan to provide internet service to rural Kendall County residents. I have an internet connection here in Lisbon – my landline telephone provides it. Ditto my cellphone. And I could get better service if I wanted to pay more.

AT&T has applied to the state for permission to discontinue landlines and has been forbidden to. Is the $16 million rural fiber-optic project in anticipation of landline discontinuance? Or because many now have discontinued landlines in favor of cellphones, which can’t access the internet?

Excluding the maybe several thousand in Newark and Joliet expansion, we have one person per square mile. Outside of maybe 500 in Lisbon and Platteville, one hundred farmers plus a few retired occupants of 5-acre plots? $16 million for 13 “gigantic” rings of cable for “... sparsely populated locations is not worth the return.” is an opinion worth considering.

Despite the possibility half the cost is covered by Uncle Sugar, the County Board will have to burden county residents with $8 million up front to build a 5-years-till-completion project, which might require buried cable – a much more expensive option than using existing AT&T/utility poles.

Will sufficient users commit to allow private sector firms a return to provide the “last mile” connection? Their fees will pay off the 6%, 30 year bonds?

I fear this is bureaucratic entrepreneuraism. We need tangible returns to justify this board proposal, maybe even a referendum.

Yours truly is not a supporter.

Alphonse I. Johnson

Lisbon