20K more homes, businesses in rural Ohio areas now have access to internet broadband, Spectrum says

The project was supported by BroadbandOhio’s Residential Broadband Expansion Grant Program.

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said Monday that when he was elected governor, there were an estimated 300,000 homes without access to broadband internet. Today, that number is closer to 60,000.

“I think this is parallel to when electricity first was in the cities, but not in the rural areas,” the governor said. “I suppose there were some people who said ‘Well that’s just a luxury,’ but the truth is people needed that electricity to live the same quality of life...The same thing is true with with broadband.”

The announcement comes as part of a multi-year, roughly $7 billion construction initiative by Spectrum and parent company Charter Communications to install high-speed broadband internet in rural homes.

The company estimates this will grant internet access to approximately 1.75 million previously unserved families and small businesses.

“It is used for many, many purposes but certainly one essential one that is education and communication,” DeWine continued. “We want people to have the same access to something that’s very essential to the way we live our lives today.”

Greene County Career Center Superintendent Dave Deskins said Monday that the school will be offering a career pathway in broadband internet installation and operation starting in the fall as part of the school’s cybersecurity program.

“We knew that (broadband) was becoming pretty critical for the state, and so we decided several months ago that we wanted to start exploring the possible use of fiber optics pathways in our curriculum,” Deskins said. “It was really a positive opportunity for combining some of that curriculum to allow our students to have yet more credentials and more opportunities.”

The career center partnered with an Ohio chapter of the Fiber Optics Association to develop its curriculum, which will prepare individuals for jobs installing, maintaining, and designing. fiber optic cables and systems, Deskins said.

“Companies like Spectrum will look to hire students who already know how fiber optics work, how the installation works...the repair, the components technologists need to fix, designing it, the layout for it, all of those things make it a valuable option.”