FREMONT, Ohio — More federal funding in on the way to improve highspeed internet access in Ottawa and Sandusky counties.
The United States Department of Agriculture announced $713 million of funding from the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will be used this year to help expand fiberoptic networks for high-speed internet in rural areas.
"Unlike the day where you might have thought of it as a luxury, now it's more like roads, water, or electricity," said Andy Berke, administrator for the Rural Utilities Service of the USDA. "And President Biden knows that. That's why it's part of that infrastructure package."
Locally, Amplex Internet in Luckey was awarded a $21.3 million loan from that funding to get all of rural Sandusky and Ottawa Counties connected.
"We're making a huge push now because we don't want Ohioans or anybody to wait," Berke said. "And we we need to get this done as quickly as possible."
The new network will offer 10 gigabit speeds for more than 3,000 people and 65 businesses.
Amplex has been working on expanding its fiberoptic network across the entire coverage area, but say it's a slow process to get the needed funding.
"We took five years to kind of get where we're at because we bootstrapped it. Having access to more funding will definitely help us speed that up." said Mark Radabaugh, president of Amplex.
Amplex says they will begin the engineering process of this project immediately. But the biggest hurdle to get this started will be hiring the skilled workforce.
The news conference was held at Terra State Community College, which has been offering classes and training for this specific work for a few years.
Third party contractors who will help with the network build out know these large scale projects can't happen without community support.
"The only way this is going to get fixed is with all of the community help, and sponsorships from different community leaders and governmental help," said Todd Meyers, president of Kenneth Meyers Construction.
Amplex expects this new network will begin providing new internet connections within a year.
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