State helps fund three more community broadband projects

From a July 9 Development Department press release:

Lieutenant Governor Lee Fisher today announced that the Governor's Office of Appalachia (GOA) has teamed with the Ohio State University (OSU) to sponsor the Connecting Rural Ohio Wireless Neighborhood Initiative to deploy broadband to community-owned wireless networks to several communities within distressed Appalachian counties. Up to three communities will be selected to receive a community learning center that will include six computers and a networked printer available at no charge for public use.

This is the next step of a strategy devised by Alan Escovitz and his colleagues at OSU. The first application of the idea was deployed in New Straitsville in Perry County in 2003; the second has been famously up and running in Chesterhill in Morgan County for more than a year. The third CRO project is now being rolled out in the village of Vinton in Gallia County. As the DOD press release says, the Connecting Rural Ohio team is looking to develop two additional sites in the near future.

To learn more contact Dr. Escovitz at OSU's Office of the CIO.