Rural broadband getting $10 million boost in Kansas

HARPER, Kan. (KSNW) – A broadband increase has been a very long time coming for a lot of in rural Kansas.

“We mood our web utilization. We don’t want all our children streaming on the similar time,” mentioned rural Harper resident Leslie Gerber. “However I feel within the rural communities, we wrestle with getting good web service and having the ability to join with individuals. We additionally be taught to simply handle with what we’ve.”

Gerber is intrigued by the potential for sooner web for her web site.

Years in the past, she and her husband put in a berry patch. Now they personal and function Candy Berries & Brambles outdoors their dwelling. It’s a “you decide it” farm.

“We run a web site, but it surely’s fairly primary,” mentioned Gerber.

Gerber is close to the growth zone for SCTelcom.

SCTelcom simply acquired roughly $750,000 grant to broaden quick web to rural areas.

“And we’ve switched completely to. All growth is with fiber within the floor. Fiber to the premises,” mentioned SCTelcom CEO Carla Shearer. “So whether or not it’s a home-based enterprise or rural enterprise, we’re serving them with fiber now.”

Shearer says it’s about $35,000 a mile within the space to put new fiber. Extra in the event that they hit a rock.

“Having the ability to take part, like I say, with out boundaries,” mentioned Shearer. “We see quite a lot of our community utilization has elevated and has remained there by way of the pandemic. So our community utilization may be very excessive. Folks working from dwelling, they discovered a strategy to do it.”

Shearer says they’re increasing into elements west and south of Harper proper now. And extra growth is on the way in which.

Shearer additionally says connectivity is getting an enormous increase from the State of Kansas.

“SCTelcom has been right here since 1953. We began into web in 2001,” says Shearer. “This increase may be very a lot a very good use of taxpayer cash.”

For Gerber, she has no rapid plans to revamp her primary web site. However she says up-to-speed rural web service is a very long time coming.

“It’s truly difficult advertising at the moment is completely different than what it was even 15 years in the past,” mentioned Gerber.