For some time now Cumberland Countians have been complaining about poor internet service from the Frontier Communications service provider.  Frontier Communications has been made aware of the problems by County Mayor Allen Foster.  Unfortunately, Frontier doesn’t seem to give a lot of attention to its Cumberland County customers.  There is not a lot anyone can do about this dilemma to force Frontier Communications to improve its service in Cumberland County.  However, Cumberland County Mayor Allen Foster has developed a plan since he took office to help other internet providers expand their services within the county by applying for state grant money. One of the problems Foster found was the current FCC map showing broadband speeds in the county was inaccurate.  The FCC map showed the slowest speeds anyone was getting in Cumberland county was 10mbps – which, as most who have Frontier, know is not the case.  Grant money from the state is available to providers in areas with less than 10mbps download speeds.

Foster needed to get a more accurate picture of internet speeds in the county in order to help other providers, such as Vol First, obtain state grant money to expand their internet service to those who are being deprived of dependable service from Frontiernet or no provider at all.   There is grant money available for providers to improve and expand IF there are vast areas of the county which are suffering from poor or no internet service.

The survey is complete and the next step is to get the community to speak out in volumes that they need better service.  There has already been one meeting of the northern part of the county with Vol First and another one is scheduled for Monday, September 23rd.  Everyone in northern Cumberland County needs to attend these meetings for Vol First to demonstrate in their application for state funding there is a serious need to improve broadband service to the area.  The grant money available is dependent on showing a  great “need” by the communities.

Here is the post from the County Mayors office regarding the northern portion of Cumberland County:

Vol First Services, doing business as Ben Lomand Connect, is applying for a Tennessee Broadband Accessibility Grant to provide high-speed internet service to a portion of northern Cumberland County.

They will be hosting town hall meetings at North Cumberland Elementary School on September 23rd at 6:00 pm to answer questions specific to the grant application, discuss the fiber-to-the-premises deployment topology, and hopefully collect surveys and support letters.

Letters are being mailed to residents of the proposed grant area, and they are optimistic that residents who are interested in this opportunity will plan to attend one of the meetings. Community support is a vital part of the grant application process, and the more support we can generate at these meetings, the better our opportunity of being a grant recipient for this worthy project!

SOUTH CUMBERLAND COUNTY:

South Cumberland County is also suffering poor internet service as well.  There is a plan in place for southern Cumberland County broadband service to be expanded by Bledsoe Telephone Cooperative.  Below is a post from Mayor Foster concerning the south part of the county:

I started working on the broadband issue in Cumberland County last September and started meeting with our current providers in October. Then in March of this year I met with Bledsoe Telephone Cooperative. We talked in detail about the issues we have here and how they could help.

Now, Bledsoe Telephone Cooperative is applying for a Tennessee Broadband Accessibility Grant to provide the community in the general vicinity of the Vandever area between Hwy 101 and Hwy 127 with a fiber-optic network. Demonstration of community support for an enhanced broadband network is a critical component of the grant process. Visitbtcfiber.com/cumberland and fill out the survey online to help us connect more of our communities to fiber internet.

It is critical for residents who are in need of better broadband service to attend the meetings and respond to online surveys.  This does not apply to those who have Spectrum, Comcast or other providers which provide good service to customers in Cumberland County.