MARTINSVILLE — Seventeen hundred Brown County households could have high-speed fiber internet run to their homes by the end of this year.

South-Central Indiana REMC plans to extend broadband internet to 3,754 homes — about 1,700 of them in Brown County and the rest in Morgan County — in the first phase of its four-year construction plan.

Construction could start at the end of May.

The member-owed electric cooperative plans to bring “fiber to the home” to 24,418 homes that are served by SCI-REMC power by 2021, company officials announced April 3 in Martinsville.

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Leaders also hope to pick up other non-REMC homes as internet customers along the way.

Brown County was chosen for the first phase because an outside consultant identified it as making sense number-wise, said SCI-REMC President and CEO James Tanneberger.

The incentives Brown County offered factored in, he added.

RELATED STORY: Jackson County REMC bringing internet to Brown County

Last month, the county commissioners passed an ordinance declaring all of Brown County an infrastructure development zone. That designation allows broadband internet providers to get exemptions on their business personal property taxes for increasing the availability of service in Brown County.

Tanneberger estimated the total investment the company would be making in Brown County at about $17 million.

The entire four-year project is expected to cost SCI-REMC about $84 million, not taking into account cost-reducing offers other communities might provide, Tanneberger said.

Brown County has been “way ahead” of other communities with the help they’ve offered, he said.

There’s a reason why other broadband companies haven’t expanded much into rural areas: It’s expensive to install, and in many areas, the population isn’t dense enough to make it worth it, company leaders said.

SCI-REMC isn’t going into this project to make a lot of money — though leaders hope that, eventually, the broadband business will be good enough that it could help lower electric rates. “That’s our long-term business model,” Tanneberger said.

First and foremost, expanding broadband access is important to community health, he said.

He played a video from Sprint’s 1Million Project, which illustrated the “achievement gap” between students who don’t have reliable internet access at home and those who do.

“This has been happening already in this community,” Tanneberger said. “We’re trying to give students a level playing field, and our communities.”

In addition to helping people work from their homes and helping businesses operate, fiber internet availability can raise the property value of homes by as much as 3.1 percent, he said.

About 15 Brown County residents attended the announcement at SCI-REMC’s Martinsville headquarters.

Brown County Redevelopment Commission President Jim Kemp was one of them. He said this news puts Brown County in a position to move forward and gradually increase its population of residents and school children, while also improving the quality of life for everyone.

Lack of internet access comes up at nearly every government meeting having anything to do with planning for the future.

“This is an exciting opportunity for the residents of Brown County. It is certainly a valuable infrastructure resource that will help foster community growth,” Kemp said.

Brown County was able to take steps toward attracting this investment through legislation sponsored by Sen. Eric Koch (R-Bedford).

The Brown County infrastructure development zone was based on a 2013 law Koch introduced when he was a member of the Indiana House of Representatives.

In 2015, Koch also created the House act which set up the Broadband Ready process. Broadband Ready is a pledge that communities can adopt to make expanding broadband as roadblock-free as possible for companies that are willing to invest. Nashville was the first town to become Broadband Ready; Brown County was the first county.

Koch also sponsored a bill in the Senate last year which allows electric co-ops to use existing electric poles to install fiber.

Mike Laros, chairman of the Brown County Broadband Task Force, said work has been ongoing for at least three years to get to this point, not to mention an earlier task force that disbanded.

Despite this announcement, there’s still work to be done. Not all of Brown County will be covered by REMCs or larger companies like Smithville, he said. That’s where smaller companies, such as Brown County-based Mainstream Fiber, can — and already have — come in, he said.

“It’s a complex task,” he said.

“We’ll be looking for ways to help the process.”

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WHO?

SCI Fiber will be installed in four phases:

1: 3,754 homes — about 1,700 in Brown County and the rest in Morgan County — in 2018. See map for the Brown County area that will be included.

2: 7,896 homes in 2019. Geographical area to be announced.

3: 6,518 homes in 2020. Geographical area TBA.

4: 6,250 homes in 2021. Geographical area TBA.

WHEN?

Construction could start in late May or June.

Installation of the “backbone” will be under way until late October, then “service drops” (lines from poles to customers’ properties), then home installations. SCI-REMC members will be able to sign up for service at the end of the year.

HOW MUCH?

SCI Fiber is offering three packages:

Tier 1: $55 per month for 50 mbps

Tier 2: $65 per month for 100 mbps

Tier 3: $150 per month for 1 gbps

VOIP (voice over internet protocol) phone service can be added for $40 per month to any package.

Installation will cost nothing for SCI-REMC power customers.

For non-members, an installation fee of around $300 has been discussed, but isn’t final, President and CEO James Tanneberger said. That won’t really cover the co-op’s costs, but they do want to make service available to the community, he said.

HELP AVAILABLE?

In response to a question from the audience about how counties could help, Tanneberger said they might want to think about supporting residents who need high-speed internet at home the most, but aren’t able to afford it.

Brown County Broadband Task Force Chairman Mike Laros said that idea has been discussed, but “now we need to act on it.”

LEARN MORE

SCI-REMC pledged to post updates at sciremc.com/scifiber.

At that site, residents also can show interest for having service in their area.

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