Transforming Digital Dirt Roads

For an estimated 1.6 million rural residents in Georgia, high-speed internet access is nonexistent at home. “This is a community problem because it impacts our economic development, it impacts our skills, it impacts our education and healthcare,” says Steve Fortmann, founder, president and CEO of Paladin Wireless in Royston. “But the biggest thing [internet access impacts] is opportunity. Back in the 1800s, it was the railroad that connected you to the world and opportunities. Today it’s the internet.”

Lack of access to broadband in rural areas has been on business and legislative leaders’ minds for some time. In 2016, the Georgia General Assembly approved Senate Resolution 876, creating a study committee to examine how the lack of broadband affects communities and explore solutions. The committee worked with the University of Georgia’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government (CVIOG), which collected and analyzed data from homeowners and other internet users. This led to the 2018 passage of state Senate Bill 401, the Achieving Connectivity Everywhere (ACE) Act that provides planning, deployment and incentives for broadband services. The Georgia Department of Community Affairs (DCA) created the Georgia Broadband Deployment Initiative (GBDI) to operationalize the ACE Act.