All regions of the Valley are still not where they should be when it comes to high-speed Internet capabilities, but there is hope for the future.

Some of the groundwork for that future has already been laid.

The city of Sunbury recently became a connection area for a communications line planned to stretch from Ohio to New Jersey.

Three-and-a-half-inch ducts are being dug, and three lines of fiber-optic cable are being installed underground, beginning in Youngstown and Cleveland, Ohio, to Lake Erie, across Pennsylvania, and into New Jersey across the Delaware River Bridge at Easton.

Wilderness fiber project

Jim Peters, project manager for the Pennsylvania line for InfraSource, the company installing the line, said in about three years, the cable can be used as a main line for Internet service providers such as Verizon or Comcast.

Named the "Wilderness Fiber Project," the intention is to provide better Internet access to rural areas that may not have many high-speed, landline Internet options.

The assumption, according to Jim Baker, chief of the Information Technologies Group at SEDA-Council of Governments, is that one conduit will be a main data line, another will be a backup, and a third may be intended for future commercial sales or rental.

An amplifier site, also known as an "in" to the fiber-optic line, will be placed in the city, giving it a "100 megabyte pop," Baker said. One hundred megabytes is equal to the speed of a normal network in an office. "It's very, very fast," he said.

Unique geography

Baker said Sunbury is uniquely situated geographically, allowing InfraSource workers to stretch the line across both branches of the Susquehanna River at the same time — an attractive opportunity for the company because crossing a waterway is an expensive and difficult process, including strapping the lines to the bottom of bridges.

Peters said there are hundreds of thousands of entities involved in this project, and he has been working closely with every municipality that the line is crossing. He initially met with Sunbury officials in August, and just recently received all permits necessary to move forward. In about three weeks, workers will begin to hang the line on the Sunbury steel bridge. The city has been paid for the disruption to its streets.

It's good news for the Valley, Baker said, where most rural residents have been forced to buy lower speed and less effective, and often more expensive, Internet if they want access at all.

Thanks to other funding and programs, as well, there is more light that is being seen at the end of the tunnel.

Baker is working with about 130 communities in the region, trying to get broadband deployed through Pennsylvania's Bona Fide Retail Request program, which gives telephone company subscribers the legal right to petition and eventually force phone companies to provide DSL service. Sixty other communities have already been successful. More information is available by contacting Baker at jbaker@seda-cog.org.

It's not in the phone companies' best interest to serve rural areas, Baker explained. "It's so expensive with a limited market."

By the end of 2015, however, all phone companies will be required to provide broadband Internet access to every rural area in the nation.

The Valley may also find some help through some awards from the ARRA Broadband Grant, including $28 million to strengthen the state's network in the area above Interstate 80. The purpose is to increase the capacity of the state's public safety radio system in the northern part of the state. Once data can be carried between all of the system's antennas, a portion will be made available to commercial carriers, Baker said. The area had been avoided by service providers because of the expense to build infrastructure for the small number of people who would buy it.

Northern Northumberland and Union counties will likely be affected by this new coverage.

The Pennsylvania Research Education Network is also planning to connect almost all of the state's higher education schools, including Bucknell and Penn State universities. Once the institutions receive what they need, the excess will be made available for commercial entities that could eventually provide service for Union, Snyder and Northumberland counties, Baker said. Of the $130 million needed for this project, an ARRA grant will provide about $98 million. Building should being within six months, and must be completed by the end of 2012.

Another round of state recommendations for ARRA Broadband Grants has not yet been approved. This second round, Baker said, has less interest in serving rural users. Out of about 11 projects requesting $108 million for broadband expansion, none were for the Central Susquehanna Valley, while most of the money is likely to go to heavily populated areas such as Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Delaware County.

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