Ask people in a rural hamlet of Central Pennsylvania if they’d like fast Internet service, and chances are they’ll jump at the chance.
That’s what Leroy Hibbs learned when he looked into the possibility of getting broadband service at his home near Middleburg, about an hour’s drive south of Williamsport. Hibbs, a retired high school agriculture teacher, has dial-up Internet access, which makes things difficult for the tax-preparation business he runs. He files every return online and even simple returns don’t transmit easily over the Internet at his house. This time of year, Hibbs uses a computer program that stores returns and allows them to be sent over his Internet access, 10 or 12 at a time.
So he asked Verizon and the SEDA-Council of Governments, a regional development organization, how he could get faster Internet. That’s how he learned about the process of filing a Bona Fide Retail Request, which is essentially a certain number of people committing to pay for high-speed Internet access if it becomes available in their area.
Hibbs needed to get 28 of his neighbors to sign a petition requesting faster Internet and promising to pay for it. He got 60 signatures.
Then he decided to petition residents in nearby areas for broadband. In almost 100 square miles, 150 people signed up. Locals told Hibbs they could use faster Internet for all sorts of reasons, from home-schooling their children to filing car inspection reports online. Based on what he’s heard from Verizon, he doesn’t expect broadband to arrive before September.
“Everyone needs it,” Hibbs says. “We don’t even get good wireless reception here.”
Source: Leroy Hibbs
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen