Fruitland Township has the highest percentage of unserved or underserved parcels in Muskegon County when it comes to high-speed internet access.
Roughly 600 out of the 3,773 parcels in the township lack adequate connectivity for internet service, according to a countywide survey that was recently completed by DCS Technology, a company that was hired by Muskegon County to survey internet access in the various communities.
It would cost an estimated $3.9 to $5 million to have the unserved or underserved parcels in Fruitport Township connected, according to officials.
There are federal dollars available to help cover the cost of running the necessary lines to homes that lack connectivity, under the federal Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program (BEAD).
Approval for the funding has to go through the state’s “challenge” process to verify the lack of adequate connectivity for individual homes.
Officials believe it would be best for the broadband companies active in Fruitland Township – Comcast and Charter Communications – to go through that process on behalf of all underserved residents.
Township Supervisor Jeff Marcinkowski said he will be talking to those companies soon to measure their willingness to do so, and potentially gain a lot of new internet customers.
“We determined that instead of having the residents challenge their parcel, the best thing to do at this time is to have Comcast and Charter challenge those,” Marcinkowski said. “The state is not going to release any funding until all of the unserved or underserved parcels have been challenged and verified.
“Comcast or Charter would have to make contact with a house and verify that they have no service or lack of service that meets the required speed. Until all of the (area) is challenged, there is no money available.”
Marcinkowski believes it would be in the companies’ interest to do the legwork to verify the addresses that qualify for government dollars to cover the cost of connecting.
“Comcast has their network in here, and small runs to get it to the homes,” he said. “If they apply for a grant to do that, they will get money to connect all the homes in their area. On the front end (the company) is not paying any money, and then they will have a customer who can get the service and utilize it.”
A special map of Fruitport Township shows that Comcast currently provides connectivity service to a large portion of the southern part of the township while Charter serves a significant portion to the north.
A large portion of the middle of the township is designated as unserved or underserved, a fact that surprised township officials.
“I was surprised, and the township board was surprised, that we are the least served,” Marcinkowski said.
While Fruitland officials were not aware of the scope of the problem, Marcinkowski said he has long been getting phone calls from residents who would like to have their homes connected for internet service but can’t afford to have it done.
“People in new subdivisions that have gone in, particularly the ones off Nestrom Road, were complaining about the amount of money it would take to get Comcast to come less than 300 yards to get to their home,” Marcinkowski said.
At first residents were saying it would cost about $3,000 to get their homes connected, according to Marcinkowski. Then others reported that they were being quoted prices as high as $8,000 or even $15,000, he said.
Marcinkowski said he contacted Comcast on behalf of the residents, but got nowhere.
“The corporate office asked me what single parcels I was calling about,” Marcinkowski said. “They didn’t want to handle 15 or 20. They were only interested in talking about one single property. I just let it go. I called back the residents and said there was nothing I could do.”
