The Oneida County Technology Committee is seeking funding from federal and state sources…to help fuel broadband development.
Chair Don Sidlowski says the committee is filing preliminary paperwork Friday for a grant program through the FCC, the Federal Communications Commission.
“It turns out that all of Oneida County, with the exception of Rhinelander, qualifies and so there’s a lot of places we can look in Oneida County for the federal dollars.”
The Oneida County Board created the Technology Committee in 2012, and has allocated 24-thousand dollars for broadband development.
Sidlowski says both county board support and existing infrastructure give the county a strong jumping off point for improving high speed access.
“We’ve got such a solid infrastructure already in places like Three Lakes, like Minocqua, like the city of Rhinelander. We already have our really bright spots in the county, and now the goal with these other projects that we’re trying to fund is to connect those dots.”
Sidlowski says solutions include fiber optic cable or wireless options.
He notes that the end goal of broadband projects is more than high speed internet: the overall purpose is economic development.
