County OKs Verizon pact

Commissioners urge more coverage

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Several hours before the standing-room-only public hearing on the county's budget last Wednesday, a relatively composed Charles County commissioners' work session concluded with the approval of a 15-year agreement to provide digital transmission to many of the county's residents.

"I'm very pleased to see competition coming into the county," said Charles County commissioners' President F. Wayne Cooper (D).

While the communications company works to flip the switch for lucky residents in the initial service areas of the county, the commissioners have also asked Verizon to seriously consider the future for those whose televisions have been left in the dark.

"What opportunities do you seen in the future for students and residents in outlying areas?" asked commissioners' Vice President Edith J. Patterson (D).

"We need to look at the challenges people who choose to live in rural areas face."

The rural areas Patterson spoke of, including Nanjemoy and Hughesville, are not included on either service area map.

The former community is in District 2 that Patterson represents.

As the contract stands, a majority of homes in the initial cable service area — including Waldorf and La Plata — will be hooked up to the fiber-based broadband network within two years and the remainder within three years.

Areas with a density of 30 households per square mile are expected to have service in one to five years, and areas of 15 households per square mile in six to 15 years.

Communities in Baden, Bryans Road and Indian Head would get their service within eight years, and neighborhoods with less than 15 and 30 households per square mile connected within 15 years.

"Down the road Verizon probably will expand to other areas of the county," said Joseph Daniels, assistant vice president of external affairs for Verizon. "As we know, technology changes rapidly and the opportunity will present itself to extend the fiber further."

The problem with extending the fiber today, Verizon representatives said, is that a signal can only be sent through about 11 miles of fiber before it must be regenerated.

The logistical and financial resources to link these distant communities with strong, reliable connections would be too expensive for the company, Daniels said.

According to Jim Lynn, chairman of the county's cable advisory commission, who was on hand for the county commissioners' work session, those 11 miles should then be used to their full potential. It was Lynn's commission which sent the legislation to the county commissioners with a stamp of approval.

"One thing we are very concerned about is the rural areas," Lynn said. "We don't think there should be any areas in the county not in the service area."

Richard Aldridge, the county's director of the fiscal and administrative services IT administration, told the commissioners that the county's planning and growth management department was ensuring the company met digging requirements via a permit process.

What Verizon plans on doing — and has already started to do — is use a boring tool to find the existing copper wire networks, which will provide a base for an overlay.

Along with its residents receiving cutting-edge cable options, the county will also get four channels for public, education and government access, and $250,000 up front as a grant to use toward those broadcasts. Public schools and government buildings will also get free cable service.

The county also gets 5 percent of the gross revenue from the cable service provided by Verizon, 1 percent of the gross revenue through the term of the agreement and 0.06 percent of the gross revenue through June 2017.

Though a cut of the profits is a welcome source of revenue to the county, it wasn't dollars and cents the commissioners were considering for the future.

"The elephant in the room is everyone wants high-speed Internet," said Commissioner Samuel N. Graves Jr. (D) "We want every citizen to have access to high-speed Internet."

msomers@somdnews.com