GTC Continues Quest to Bring Broadband to All of Wheeler County

Glenwood Telephone Company’s quest to provide comprehensive broadband coverage in Wheeler County recently got a boost that will substantially increase the number of locations eligible for fiber optic services in the county.

A U.S. Treasury allocation based on costs due to inflation contributed an additional 10% in funds to the original $4.8 million grant. This means GTC will be getting $5.3 million to bring broadband to 1,127 sites, rather than the original 608 locations first designated in the grant.

In January 2023, Governor Brian Kemp announced that GTC received $4,864,941 as part of the $234 million in 29 preliminary grant awards for broadband internet expansion across Georgia. These awards will improve connectivity in Wheeler County by expanding GTC’s buried fiber optic gigabit network, allowing the company to reach more underserved and unserved residents within the county, said GTC’s CEO and owner Jim O’Brien.

The awards, made available through the Capital Projects Fund (CPF) Grant Program announced in August 2022 by the governor, utilize funds from the American Rescue Plan Act to improve connectivity for communities, households, businesses, and anchor institutions in 28 Georgia counties. When combined with significant capital matches from the awardees, almost $455 million will be invested to serve over 76,000 locations in communities with some of the greatest need for high-speed internet access.

The Governor’s Office of Planning & Budget (OPB) and the Georgia Technology Authority (GTA) worked together to identity the most underserved and unserved counties in the state and to establish a competitive grant program. In Wheeler County, GTC, which has been serving the community since 1898, received widespread support from state and local leaders in its application for the grant.

“We’re ready to go,” O’Brien said about the next phase of bringing broadband to more locations in the county. “We have gotten all of the engineering done, and we have brought in over 200,000 pounds of equipment,” O’Brien said, noting the project contractor, Jim Young Construction, will be starting its build out in March. The project to lay 162 route miles of fiber optic cable and to bring customers online is expected to take about a year; however, some areas will receive services by early summer. The grant-funded project must be completed by December 2026. So far, about a half million dollars has been spent on the project, mostly for equipment and engineering.

GTC crews have been visible in the county as they worked on several privately-funded test sites which provide a gigabit of connectivity through fiber optic lines. When the new grant-funded lines are laid, all GTC customers will have up to 10 gigabits of connectivity, including customers who signed on as the test sites were developed.

In the next few weeks, fiber optic crews will be busy accomplishing directional boring and pipe work beneath driveways, rivers, creeks, etc. “We want to be well ahead of any plow crews that will arrive in April,” O’Brien said. As the crews continue their work throughout the county, residents will receive information through various sources. “We will be placing signs, flyers, and door tags along the routes to advise the public,” O’Brien said. Additionally, a web site (https:// www.gtconline.com/cpf ) which went online February 19, will provide maps and information about the progress of the work.

O’Brien said the first route to be built out will be along Georgia Highway 19 all the way to Lumber City; then the company will build out along U.S. Highway 280. The permitted zones, which are determined by CPF, will also include Broad Street-Little Rock Road, including the Wheeler Correctional Facility. While a portion of the City of Alamo, including the Wheeler County K-12 School, will receive broadband upgrades, not all of the City of Alamo will be covered, and not every square mile of the county will be included in the initial phase. But O’Brien has a plan.

“There is a business case to be made to every home in Wheeler County, and we plan on serving every home in Wheeler County eventually. We are not going to stop when CPF runs out.” Other funds may be on the horizon, specifically BEAD — the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program, which is administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).

GTA is assisting the OPB to expand broadband across the state, supporting every Georgian’s access to high speed, reliable internet. BEAD provides $42.45 billion to expand high-speed Internet access by funding planning, infrastructure deployment, and adoption programs in all 50 states, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

GTA is currently in the planning phase for more than $1.3 billion in grant funds from the NTIA’s BEAD program. These dollars will be used to support broadband grants to serve remaining unserved and underserved locations in Georgia.

“Right now, my focus is 100% on Wheeler County,” O’Brien said. GTC serves a portion of Montgomery County and has offices in Mount Vernon. The company is headquartered in Glenwood, but recently, O’Brien invested in an office site in downtown Alamo.

W.R. Stanford founded GTC in 1898 as a telephone and telegraph office. The company came into the ownership of the family of Jim O’Brien in 1943. GTC is the smallest, privatelyowned independent telephone company in Georgia.