HILLSDALE, Mich — Federal funding under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law aims to bring high-speed internet to rural communities.
- About 30% of Michigan households do not have affordable, reliable high-speed internet, says Michigan's Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity.
- Connecting online in outlying areas of Hillsdale County can be a challenge.
- With about $1.5 billion in Broadband Equity and Access Deployment ("BEAD") funding, Michigan is one of the top recipients of federal dollars to bring high-speed internet to rural neighbors.
Not everyone has high-speed internet everywhere you go. But high-speed internet is now going to reach rural areas in Hillsdale County thanks to a federal program with more than $40 billion to make it happen nationwide.
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Rural living. Some choose it for business. Others — for cost of living. Still others — for peace and quiet.
"I love the privacy and the quiet of it all," says Ashley Davis, who lives in Hillsdale County.
Whatever your reason, connecting online in outlying areas like this one can be a challenge. Ask Davis, whose elderly mother-in-law lives in Japan and has health issues:
"I could get long-distance calling, but that's very expensive, so we just always depended on Facebook and Skype, and if we tried it at home, we'd drop a lot of the calls most of the time."
But things are changing now that high-speed internet is reaching homes like hers.
"These are things that folks in our area just didn't have. Cellular doesn't have that capability in our rural area to accommodate that type of communications," says David Cleveland.
Cleveland's company, DMCI Broadband, is laying fiber optic cable across Hillsdale County, and in Branch and Calhoun Counties, using Michigan's chunk of the federal Broadband Equity and Access Deployment, or "BEAD" grant — part of 2021's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
According to Michigan's Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity, about 30% of Michigan households do not have affordable, reliable high-speed internet. Michigan's getting about $1.5 billion of BEAD funding to close this "digital divide".
Ashley says it's been a game-changer for checking up on her mother-in-law.
"So now with the new internet, we're able to contact her when we need to, and she's also able to contact us," says Davis. "Just being able to stay up-to-date with her with, like, you know, her current state of being."
Cleveland says high-speed connections help rural businesses stay efficient, rural workers telecommute, rural neighbors access online learning, and even medicine:
"You now can do doctor's appointments, you know via a Teams meeting, Skype meeting....and you interact with that doctor just as if you were there 45 minutes, an hour — they're in Detroit or in Grand Rapids — they don't have to drive to those areas anymore."
He says fiber optic internet access also increases home values.
And, of course, keeps families like Davis's and her mother-in-law connected.
"She likes it 'cause now she can reach out to us and we answer," says Davis. "She doesn't think we're ignoring her anymore."
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