Broadband in McKean County was a central topic at the meeting of the McKean County Commissioners on Tuesday.
Commissioner Carol Duffy said that broadband was identified as an area of focus this year by the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania, and introduced Bob Veilleux, county economic development liaison, for an update.
“The Eldred project is underway, with a goal of having it completed in Fall 2022,” Veilleux said. “It is projected to reach just over 1,000 structures including portions of Eldred Borough, Eldred Township, Otto Township, Keating Township, Ceres Township and Annin Township.”
The Route 6 project, between Smethport and Hazel Hurst, is being funded through a grant that SkyPacket Networks has received from the PA Unserved/Underserved grant program. It will be used to install equipment.
“SkyPacket is an ISP that is currently using the county’s network to deliver service to customers,” Veilleux said. “They are in the process of finalizing the tower sites and determining the best location for a microwave relay point. SkyPacket hopes to have this project finished by Spring 2023 and it will service approximately 360 structures between Smethport and Hazel Hurst including the Irons Hollow, Bloomster Hollow and Kasson areas.”
Portions of Keating, Hamlin and Sergeant townships are included.
Veilleux said the county has been collecting data related to broadband availability.
“To date, two surveys have been administered,” he said. However, neither garnered much response.
The first survey was done in 2020 with 243 respondents, the second was in 2022 and despite being mailed to 8,000 property owners, only 108 survey responses were received.
“That’s disappointing, only a one percent return,” said Commissioner Cliff Lane.
Veilleux said the survey data has been aggregated to determine whether respondents who included speed test results for their services are considered unserved, underserved, or served. According to new Federal and State guidelines, service of 100 mbps download and 20 mbps upload are considered “served,” service of less than 100 mbps download and 20 mbps upload are “underserved,” and service of less than 25 mbps download and 3 mbps upload are “unserved.” Based on these speed tiers, 15 of the respondents were “served,” 65 are “underserved” and 159 are considered “unserved.”
Veilleux said that some data by ZIP code showed a broad range of service levels sometimes within the same provider. As an example, he mentioned Bradford, where service ranges from 290 mbps download and 41 mpbs upload to 2.9 mbps download and 2.2 mbps upload — and it’s all within the same provider.
Bradford is served by Atlantic Broadband.
Duffy mentioned that the speed can be impacted by issues both at the provider level and at the consumer level, relating to the equipment and configuration at the consumer’s site.
Veilleux said, “The county will share data it has been collecting with the state as Pennsylvania develops its Statewide Broadband Plan. It will also provide the county with data to compare and if needed, challenge the (National Telecommunication and Information Administration) Broadband Map.”
He said the map is currently being developed by the NTIA is expected to be released for review later this year. With the local data in hand, county officials will be able to compare the maps with local test results “so that we can challenge areas that we feel may be categorized incorrectly,” Veilleux said.
Duffy said, “The more data we are able to gather, the better we are able to make decisions.”
Also at the meeting, Commissioner Chairman Tom Kreiner mentioned that work is underway at the courthouse, but added that the facility is still open and accessible to visitors.
Duffy mentioned there is a new strain of COVID-19 called the BA.5 variant.
“It seems to be a summer breakout,” she said, and urged everyone to continue to take precautionary measures to stay healthy.
The next meeting of the commissioners will be held at 10 a.m. July 26.
