Coos-Curry Electric Cooperative’s wholly-owned broadband subsidiary, Beacon Broadband, is building fiber-to-the-premises to all CCEC members and some neighboring areas. This is an incredibly expensive venture.

One of the challenges the project faces is the rural nature of this beautiful area where we choose to make our homes. By industry standards, most companies won’t build fiber infrastructure unless they have 20 or more households—or potential subscribers—per mile of the build.

Potential subscribers per mile is known as linear density. CCEC’s territory has an average linear density of just under 12.

To make the project financially feasible, Beacon Broadband depends on federal broadband funding. Three federal agencies provide the most broadband funding: the Federal Communications Commission, the Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service, and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.

Beacon Broadband secured $14 million in the FCC’s recent reverse auction, the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund. The money will subsidize service in unserved and underserved areas during the next 10 years.

In addition to that fund, the FCC provides money to help schools and health clinics connect to fast fiber service and has a subsidy program for

low-income households. Beacon Broadband will work to help our region’s schools, health care facilities and low-income households take advantage of FCC programs.

The Rural Utilities Service’s loan and grant programs help subsidize broadband development in rural areas.

Beacon Broadband is developing a grant application to help offset some of the construction costs of the fiber-to-the-premises network. Congress periodically authorizes special grant programs through the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, but it is highly competitive. The administration’s most recent Broadband Infrastructure Program allocation of $280 million received more than $2.5 billion in funding requests. The state of Oregon was among the applicants.

There are ways you can help Beacon Broadband secure the federal funds needed to complete the fiber-to-the-premises project:

• Write your congressional representatives and let them know you support funding for broadband development on the South Coast.
• Show your support for Beacon Broadband by preregistering for service at www.beaconbroadband.com.
• Use the speed test link on the Beacon Broadband homepage to help provide us with the data we need to develop a competitive grant application to provide service to those defined as underserved.