Internet ‘black holes’ spur a new fight over broadband

York Street in Gettysburg, Pa. The city still lacks reliable, fast access to high speed broadband. | Raymond W. Holman Jr. for POLITICOBack in 2015, Mark Wherley drove from his home in southern Pennsylvania to nearby Westminster, Md., for a routine ribbon-cutting event. Wherley, a videographer at a nonprofit community TV station, was there to take footage of the unveiling of a new fiber-based internet network just over the state line.

“The further out you get, the connection gets worse and worse,” Wherley said in an interview. “Mainly it’s lack of options that most of the residents are upset with. There’s really only one option if you want internet, and if you’re upset with that, it’s take it or leave it.” Mark Wherley's home in southern Pennsylvania lacks super-fast fiber. | Raymond W. Holman, Jr. for POLITICO

The broadband access problem in Adams County grates on Wherley and his neighbors in part because Comcast, one of the nation’s largest broadband providers, is headquartered in Pennsylvania; it’s just 120 miles from the cable giant’s corporate offices in Philadelphia to Community Media’s offices in Adams County.

Pennsylvania is among the battlegrounds around internet connectivity because of a 2004 state law, passed after lobbying by the telecoms industry, that makes it hard for local governments to run their own broadband networks; nonprofits have more leeway but still face practical obstacles like raising the necessary capital. Maryland lacks similar restrictions and as a result has a greater number of community broadband services, such as the one in Westminster.

Comcast covers the lion’s share of homes and businesses in Adams County, including areas where Community Media hopes to eventually build its fiber network, according to Comcast spokesperson Sena Fitzmaurice. She said that franchise agreements with cities in Adams County generally don’t require the company to provide service in areas with density less than 30 homes per road mile. Fitzmaurice said the operator’s coaxial lines in Adams County offer up to 1.

Much needed. Wehave enough missles and bombs to destroy everything on earth. Plenty of millionaires and billionaires to boot. Improve the lives of all people. Makes sense to me. Start governing for the future again, please.

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