Joint effort by city, county
By Robert Cloud
Waupaca Online and Waupaca County are collaborating to further expand high-speed internet service into rural areas.
The county erected 11 new towers in 2021 that are located as far west as East Road in Dayton, as far north as Miller Road in Dupont, as far east as the town of Lebanon and as far south as State Highway 96 in Caledonia.
”We had to target publicly owned property because of the time and cost associated with acquiring private property,” according to Waupaca County Planning and Zoning Director Ryan Brown, who is spearheading the expansion of high-seed internet for the county.
Many of the towers are located beside town halls, on abandoned landfills and on county-owned land.
Brown said the tower sites have to be on parcels without many trees and with a clear line of sight to as many homes and commercial buildings as possible.
If a parcel has a silo or a tall structure with line of sight to the tower, it can serve as a relay to other homes that have line of sight with it.
Finding tower locations
Prior to installing the towers, the county flew drones over the sites for a bird’s-eye view.
Towers will range from 100 feet to 175 feet tall, depending on the size of the parcel and how much coverage area the tower will be transmitting.
“We’re going to areas where we know there’s the greatest need for broadband, that we know are not served or under served,” Brown said.
Joshua Werner is the IT and community media director for the city of Waupaca. He oversees Waupaca Online.
Werner said there are rural areas in the county with only DSL (phone line) internet access that barely exceeds 1.5 MB per second.
Waupaca Online offers residential service packages that range from 5Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload to 25 Mbps download to 5 Mbps upload.
The costs are steep for high-speed internet service providers that use cable or fiber optics to expand into rural areas.
For example, the U.S. Department of Transportation estimated the cost to install fiber infrastructure averages about $27,000 per mile.
In a sparsely populated rural area, it can take years for the company to see a return on its investment.
Waupaca Online is wireless, so its costs are significantly less.
The recent infrastructure expansion cost less than $1 million and is covered by a Community Development Block Grant.
Brown said the project has finished its first phase.
Now, the second phase is installing equipment on the towers.
Werner said installation crews need conditions of low winds, no rain or snow and moderate temperatures in order to work.
He estimated that Waupaca Online can install equipment on a few towers in February and March, but most of the installations will take place in the spring.
“The county’s not done getting broadband to other areas,” Brown said, regarding the upgraded broadband coverage area. “This represents just the first step in furthering broadband expansion.”
Waupaca Online and Waupaca county will hold three public information meetings about the service.
Meetings
• 6 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 16, in room LL42 at the Waupaca County Courthouse. This meeting will also be the only one with a virtual option
• 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 22, at the Union Town Hall, E6892 State Highway 22.
• 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 24, at Fox Valley Technical College in Clintonville. This meeting venue requires the use of masks.
Help wanted
Werner said Waupaca Online needs to hire people to help with the installation of equipment at the towers and at customers’ homes and businesses.
For more information about job opportunities, call Werner at 715-258-4405.