The Leelanau County Board of Commissioners has given county administrator David Gill and information technology director Ron Plamondon until mid-August to negotiate a deal that could expand wireless broadband Internet service in the county.
For more than a year, county officials have been trying to finalize an agreement with a company interested in putting equipment on county-owned telecommunications towers near Schomberg Road in Leland Township and the new Law Enforcement Center in Suttons Bay Township. The equipment would provide wireless broadband Internet service to paying customers within a certain radius of the towers.
Depending on how the contract is negotiated, an Internet service provider would be able to use the county-owned towers at a discount in exchange for providing wireless broadband Internet service to the county government free of charge. County residents who are unable to receive broadband Internet service through the local cable TV franchise or other telecommunications providers could access broadband Internet service through the wireless system by paying the provider.
District No. 5 county commissioner David “Chauncey” Shiflett said he sees the county’s wireless broadband Internet initiative as an “economic development” issue because many businesses and individuals rely on high-quality, fast Internet service. He said the unavailability of such service in portions of Leelanau County was hampering business development and quality of life.
County administrator Gill said only two companies in Michigan have positioned themselves to provide such service in rural areas. Gill said he and other county officials had been in discussions for months with Maylone Enterprises Incorporated (MEI) of Elk Rapids about providing the service. However, lease negotiations apparently stalled over questions about whether the county could use the wireless service for mobile data terminals, among other issues.
MEI’s system relies on “line-of-site” wireless connectivity between towers and users of the service.
Meanwhile, a Saginaw-based company, SpeedNet, specializes in providing “non-line of sight” wireless service utilizing a different technology.
Last year, SpeedNet was awarded a $5.6 million loan through the Michigan Broadband Development Authority’s “rural broadband initiative.” The loan was intended to help SpeedNet install its equipment in “under-served” rural areas of 11 counties including Leelanau County.
Gill met with SpeedNet representatives on Tuesday to discuss a possible lease agreement for the use of county-owned towers. In addition, lease negotiations were ongoing with MEI of Elk Rapids, Gill said.
The county administrator was expected to bring a lease proposal to the county board for consideration at its Aug. 14 executive committee meeting.
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So Leelanau, what's it going to take to get this done? I'd like to see the county courthouse try to operate using a dial up connection to the internet. The county should be doing EVERYTHING it can to either help Speednet OR persuade another company to come in here and set up shop. Anything less than full on recruitment in this area is unacceptable. Leelanau will pay the price economically if they can't get a high speed provider in here soon.
This county needs to stop thinking of itself as a primarily rural county. With most of the county between 20 and 30 miles outside of Traverse City (which is not very far), as well as with an economy that is strongly tourist related, Leelanau needs this type of technology installed to keep up with the times. Tourists want high speed internet in their hotel rooms, that is a fact. Make it happen Leelanau, we stand to loose too much money due to complacency. Even the farmers on this land can benefit from high speed access. People have been talking about this issue for years now, when is it going to happen?
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