PROGRESS2024
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 29, 2025
THE ALPENA NEWS ∫ 1C
A look at Northeast Michigan’s economy last year
News Photo by Reagan Voetberg
Bruce Honeycutt surfs the internet at Turn the Page Bookstore recently.
‘It’s like water’ By REAGAN VOETBERG News Staff Writer
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.
National and local efforts promise widespread broadband access
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.”
Photo Courtesy of Metro Creative Services
Inside this issue Housing................................................ 2C
MI Counties Unemployment Rates..... 1D
Talent................................................... 3C
Don’t Expect Egg Prices to Change.... 3D
2024 Economic Development............. 3C
Shopping local benefits........................ 4D
Roads................................................... 4C Mike Mahler- Target Alpena............... 1D
Courtesy Photo
Cherry Capital Connections workers unload supplies at a broadband infrastructure construction site in this undated photo provided by the company.
Internet for all still on track for 2030, state says By REAGAN VOETBERG News Staff Writer
ALPENA — In Michigan, the federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program is still on track to give people across the state high speed-internet access by 2030. Through the BEAD program, the state received $1.6 billion — the fourth-largest allocation of all states and territories in the U.S. — to build broadband infrastructure in areas with little to no high-speed internet access, according to the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity. The BEAD program was established by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which then-President Joe Biden signed into law in November 2021. The Michigan HighSpeed Internet Office released their BEAD Program Five Year Action Plan in August 2023, laying out the details of fund allocation and the process behind it. Currently, the HighSpeed Internet Office is in the application phase of the plan, the state said in a news release on Jan. 9. There is a 90-day application window for entities to apply for funds from the grant to build broadband infrastructure. The state is in the process of reviewing these applications. If an entity’s application and proposal is accepted, that entity would then use the money to service unserved and underserved locations around Michigan. Unserved and underserved locations are determined by the internet speed readily available in the area. Unserved locations have no internet connection available at a speed of at least 25 megabits per second download and 3 megabits per second upload, according to the BEAD website. Underserved locations have internet available at a speed of at least 25/3 Mbps but less than 100/20 Mbps.
There are about 248,000 unserved and underserved businesses and households eligible for BEAD funding, said Eric Frederick, chief connectivity officer at the High-Speed Internet Office. There are nearly 500,000 unserved and underserved locations in Michigan overall, according to the Action Plan, but BEAD funding will only cover about half of those locations. Frederick stated that there is a “big job in front of us,” but that “the response has been good.” Pre-registration began in June 2024, and “quite a few” organizations leaped on to the opportunity, said Frederick. If all goes to plan, projects should start breaking ground later this year, according to the High-Speed Internet Office’s plan. It is estimated that projects will continue until 2030, with the end goal being to connect every household and business in Michigan to high-speed internet. At the implementation of the five year plan, the counties of Alcona, Alpena, Cheboygan, Crawford, Iosco, Montmorency, Ogemaw, Oscoda, Otsego, Presque Isle, and Roscommon had a combined 46,275 underserved locations and 4,947 unserved locations, according to the state’s BEAD plan. In total, about 55% of households in northeast Michigan had adopted broadband connection, according to the state plan, which is lower than the state average of 69%. The plan states, “The low rate of household broadband adoption is reflective of the low rate of broadband availability.” There are also higher-than-average numbers of rural population in Northeast Michigan, according to the plan. Rural areas are especially challenging to reach with broadband infrastructure, Frederick said.