Internet Coming to Rural Wildwood

At long last we have Internet moving into the rural areas of Wildwood! 

Rural Internet Access Committee (RIAC) committee members have been working for four years to identify Internet providers for the unserved areas of Wildwood. There is a long history around this initiative with several false starts, but as of six months ago, the RIAC asked for interested vendors to submit plans for rollout in the unserved areas. 

We initially had six vendors express interest. After several sessions with the RIAC, the vendors were narrowed down to two, Bays-ET and Wisper ISP. Wisper ISP has been serving a small section of Babler Forest in Ward 1 as a pilot proof of concept. And Bays-ET recently established a presence on the tower on Highway OO, which allows them to beam a signal into the Fox Creek Road area. Both providers are providing a wireless Internet solution. 

Wisper ISP plans on expanding their pilot out from the Babler Forest area, and Bays-ET is actively seeking customers in the Fox Creek Road area.

A meeting of RIAC members were held on Oct. 10 to discuss next steps. The RIAC voted to recommend to Wildwood City Council that $150,000 be allocated to the 2013 Municipal budget to support and facilitate the rapid rollout of Internet in the unserved areas. The funds will be used to help fund capital assets, such as antenna poles and easement acquisitions. In addition, the city staff is dedicated to facilitating the permitting process to speed the rollout.

It has been a long four years, but committee members are finally seeing their charter of getting Internet to the unserved areas come to fruition. 

Stay tuned, I will be updating via the Patch as this evolves.