Manor Ink July 2020

14 | JULY 2020 | MANOR INK NEWS
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Broadband on the way?
County plans to test new 5G technology
By Art Steinhauer | Manor Ink Mentor
Monticello, NY – If the COVID-19 pandemic
and stay-at-home restrictions have
shown anything, it is how indispensable
high speed, or broadband, Internet service
is for work, education, entertainment, information,
health services and connection to
family and community. As reported in the
April issue of Manor Ink, while most of urban
and suburban America is able to obtain
a reliable high speed Internet connection
from a local cable or telephone provider,
such as Charter/Spectrum in Sullivan County,
many rural areas lack such availability
due to the high cost of building wired networks
in sparsely populated areas.
But on the near horizon is a relatively
new “fixed wireless” technology, utilizing a
more robust 5G capacity that some cellular
phone companies are beginning to deploy
in urban areas, that might well provide a
solution to the rural service problem. Using
communications towers and other structures
to bring the 5G signal close to homes,
the service may be on the cusp of being able
to provide much higher capacity Internet
service to homes using a small antenna inside
the home connected to a Wi-Fi router.
Under the direction of Lorne Green,
Commissioner of Information Technology
Services, Sullivan County is planning
to test this new technology.
The plan, developed
by Commissioner Green,
comes out of the county’s
installation of a new communications
network that
Lorne Green
utilizes two of the county’s
communications towers to
provide a high-speed wireless data link
between the Government Center, the new
county jail and the Sheriff’s Office. The
same service, once expanded, potentially
could also provide high-speed Internet service
to residences.
“The beauty is that the same technology
can be used to provide Internet access to
homes without much more investment in
the system or in the home,” said Green.
He explained the next steps would be
to expand the government-used service to
each of the county’s ten other towers and to
continue to test its range and viability, while
also pursuing funding sources to expand
the service even further. This will entail
WIRELESS REVOLUTION? The tower at the
county jail will be used to test the possibilty
of bringing Internet service to rural parts of
Sullivan County. Dan Hust photo
mapping the range and strength of the signal
from each location and deciding where
additional supplemental antenna sites will
be needed to “fill in the pockets,” possibly
by using water towers or other structures.
Terrain and foliage, or “geography and
nature,” have a great effect on signal transmission.
Thus, a study is needed to determine
what additional facilities and costs
are necessary to reach as many areas as
possible. Green said the initial focus would
be on the western and northern parts of the
county, including the Town of Rockland,
which have the worst cellular coverage.
Green expects the study to be completed
by the end of July.
“I think we are on the cusp of something
big – the word ‘transformational’ has been
used, and it is not an understatement,”
Green said.
He explained that the service would
meet and exceed the Federal Communications
Commission definition of broadband
service, thus offering service comparable to
cable companies.
As a next step, a pilot program will test
the service in a few homes in the Monticello
area, while continuing to map out a countywide
system. Support from New York State
will be sought. If the service proves to be
technically viable, the county would then
set up a separate nonprofit corporation to
provide the service to homes. If everything
goes well, this could start by the end of this
year or early next.