Statehouse News Bureau

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Lt. Gov. Offering State-Owned Options To Speed Up Broadband Expansion

By Karen Kasler

Published June 21, 2019 at 8:07 PM EDT

Former Gov. John Kasich launched the Ohio Academic Resources Network, or OARNet fiber-optic network in December 2012, making Ohio the first state with a 100 gigabyte network statewide. The event connected officials at universities across the state. [Karen Kasler] — Former Gov. John Kasich launched the Ohio Academic Resources Network, or OARNet fiber-optic network in December 2012, making Ohio the first state with a 100 gigabyte network statewide. The event connected officials at universities across the state.

Lt. Gov. Jon Husted said he’s tired of waiting for providers to come forward with ideas on how to expand broadband and high speed internet in Ohio. So he’s offering up some state-owned options to those companies to get them on board.

Husted said the state wants to know if providers might want access to infrastructure such as easements along state highways, the state’s fiber-optic network and ODOT cell phone towers.

Husted said it’s an economic imperative to get broadband to nearly a million Ohioans who don’t have it in rural and inner city areas.

“I’ve heard for a long time that the private sector will take care of this, but hasn’t taken care of it. So we need to nudge them to get them engaged in helping us address this issue,” Husted said

Providers around the country say it’s expensive to expand broadband, especially in hilly and remote terrain, so Husted saidvthe use of this state owned infrastructure could help.

But another reason broadband hasn’t come to these non-connected populations is that they can be in small clusters, and quite often have less income.