At long last, SGRITA project ready to go live

ALBANY — It’s been a decade-plus in the making, but barring some unforeseen snag in the next few days, the South Georgia Regional Information Technology Authority’s $13 million-plus rural high-speed Internet project will go live Thursday.

With test-customer “friendlies” offering rave reviews, SGRITA — with a huge assist from the city of Albany — is set to bring heretofore unavailable reliable high-speed wireless services to a segment of the population still relying mostly on antiquated dial-up service.

“This thing has been so long in coming, it’s really hard to believe the day is upon us,” SGRITA Board Chairman and Mitchell County Administrator Clark Harrell said last week. “Everyone in this region is excited about the possibilities that will soon be available. Because we’ve tested the technology with real people in the SGRITA communities, they’re calling their neighbors and telling them about what they’re getting.

“I think this service is going to change people’s lives in these rural communities.”

SGRITA was created by the General Assembly in 2007 to manage a landmark $13 million high-speed Internet project that would bring modern-day telecommunications services to rural communities that had minimal access to such services. The plan for the project was to construct a 160-mile fiber ring that would serve portions of Baker, Calhoun, Early, Miller, Mitchell, Seminole and Terrell counties.

The project ran into difficulties in the ensuing years, some of them technical in nature, some of them attributable to mismanagement. With a hard deadline of June 2015 staring the authority in the face, its members reached out to the city of Albany for technical help.

Albany’s City Commission, at the urging of then-interim City Manager Tom Berry, considered one of the state’s foremost authorities on utilities, agreed to supply “intellectual capital,” but no actual funding (other than the time and work of engineering and technology employees involved) to complete the project’s infrastructure.

Albany officials sought an extension to the Rural Utility Service-imposed deadline, but the request was denied. Still, city personnel helped mastermind a plan that got the infrastructure in place by the deadline, completing in a matter of four to five months what hadn’t been accomplished in almost 10 years.

“To be able to make a commitment not only to the city of Albany but to the seven communities involved in the SGRITA project and bring it across the finish line is probably one of the biggest highlights of my career,” Jason Gauntt, the director of Albany’s Communications and Technology department, said. “This is something Albany personnel who worked behind the scenes to finish can be proud of. This project is a game-changer for a lot of people.”

Indeed, businesses and residents in the coverage area of the fiber ring will have access to wireless high-speed Internet products such as private data, colocation services, phone service, online gaming, streamlining video and music, and facetime capability.

And these services will come at previously undreamed-of speeds and at monthly costs ranging from $30 to $80.

Albany City Manager Sharon Subadan, who assumed that role long after the city had made its commitment to help SGRITA with its project, stunned the board and, as it turned out, state and federal officials when she told the City Commission she planned to recommend that the city opt out of the project.

Subadan said then, “My primary concern has to be for the taxpayers of Albany.”

But pressure from the counties involved in the project and from Atlanta and Washington led Subadan to alter her position. She stressed that her recommendation to the commission at a work session was that the city not be involved “under the current agreement.” She said last week that she and city officials are working on a new agreement.

“There are some financial challenges involved in this project, but the city of Albany wants to honor its commitment to help this project be successful,” the city manager said. “We’ve helped them get the infrastructure in place and get approval to move the project forward. We’ll have a new agreement ready for commission consideration as soon as the next work session (Oct. 20).

“I think it’s vital now that SGRITA work hard to onboard as many customers as possible.”

With the city of Albany serving as manager of operations for the project, Subadan has said she wants 1,000 customers signed up by the end of the year.

The SGRITA board has taken additional action to shore up its finances as it prepares to make its telecommunications project live. Harrell signed a letter, dated Oct. 1, to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack asking for debt forgiveness on the Broadband Infrastructure Program loan that was part of the total $14.4 million (with matching funds) package awarded by RUS, a branch of the Ag Department.

Offering Fiscal Year 2016 financials as support for its request, Harrell wrote in the letter: “The SGRITA Board recognizes there is much work to be done and remains committed to insure (sic) broadband services are delivered to our constituents. This will not be possible without debt forgiveness from USDA.”

Harrell sent copies of his letter to Deputy Ag Under Secretary Krysta Harden (who is a Southwest Georgia native); 2nd District U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop, D-Albany; Georgia U.S. Sens. Johnny Isakson and David Purdue; state Sen. Freddie Powell Sims, D-Dawson; State Reps. Winfred Dukes, D-Albany, Gerald Greene, R-Cuthbert, Jay Powell, R-Camilla, Ed Rynders, R-Leesburg, and Darrel Ealum, D-Albany, as well as Subadan.

Even as SGRITA board members and Albany city officials await an answer from the agriculture secretary, they’re moving forward with plans to go live on Thursday.

“The people in these rural communities have longed for reliable, high-speed Internet service for some time,” Gauntt said. “On Thursday, it’s coming to life for them.”