The power company is developing a funding resolution that would be executed by each public entity involved in a potential backbone network in the four-county area, according to the information given at the Loup meeting last week. A separate funding resolution would be executed by each county, Loup and any other public entity that could be interested in partnering for the backbone broadband network.
"When you get to the rural areas of the four-county area [Boone, Colfax, Nance and Platte counties], the availability of high-speed broadband and high-speed Internet service is a little bit limited," said President/CEO Neal Suess. "... We don't seem to be having a problem in Columbus, but I know some of our smaller towns that we serve are losing people and have lost people in the past. So is there a way we can bring some service to those areas to basically keep people on the farm?"
During that meeting, Suess provided the board of directors an update on the matter.
Loup Power District — along with Nebraska Public Power District and Boone, Colfax, Nance and Platte counties — had previously entered a memorandum of understanding (MOU) regarding rural broadband issues in the area. An MOU is a document that details the goals and guidelines for a private/public partnership development.
Meanwhile, the MOU is how the permit public entities can work together to pursue funding opportunities to bring high-speed broadband service to rural locations of the Loup's service area. The MOU also allows discussions with private entities that could be willing to become providers of broadband services in Loup's service area rural sections.
Suess said the backbone network would be around 300 miles of network to set up.
According to Suess, former NPPD President and CEO Pat Pope — who is leading the rural broadband effort throughout Nebraska — has invited Cornhusker Public Power District to join in this pursuit but is still awaiting CPPD's response.
The funding resolution would indicate the level of commitment — by dollar amount — each entity is willing to put forth for the network, Suess said. Once the amount is known, the power company — with assistance from Pope — could develop a request for proposals from private broadband entities, Suess said. The groups would also partner in developing the backbone and help in bringing broadband to a rural area of the four-county service territory served by Loup, he added.
As previously reported by The Columbus Telegram, Nebraska law forbids public power districts from selling Internet to users; however, they could permit telecommunications businesses to lease the use of fiber-optic infrastructure owned by such power districts. For several years, private telecommunications companies have said the great cost of rural broadband infrastructure investment is a barrier to providing high-speed Internet in rural areas, where there are fewer customers which would hurt investment.
The funds could come from the counties' American Relief Plan Act money, which was also discussed during last week's board meeting. Each county has shown interest in potentially using the money to further rural broadband activities in their respective counties, Suess said.
He said each entity sees the benefits of rural broadband, noting public and private partnerships are being touted as a solution to bridge the high-speed broadband gap in rural areas throughout the state.
"The thought process is in the rural areas where they have limited access to broadband, is there a way we can enhance providing that service to these rural areas to help those individuals from an economic development perspective or a regular development perspective on the agricultural basis," Suess said.
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