By Hunter Oberst
Whereas previously it took the United Church of Acworth 18 hours to upload a recording of their weekly service on the Internet, with the new, town-wide fiber-optic service, that job could be done in minutes.
“There’s really no comparison,” said parishioner Sally Eaton of Acworth. “It’s so much faster now. It’s beneficial for us to have this.”
Earlier this month, the N.H. Electric Cooperative (NHEC) launched its service in the rural town of about 800 residents, by connecting both the church and Acworth’s Town Hall, according to Seth Wheeler, NHEC communications coordinator.
The job was done through the Cooperative’s subsidiary company, NH Broadband, founded in 2020 with a mission to provide high-speed Internet access to NHEC customers. Wheeler said the organization relies on federal grants and funding through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).
Wheeler said representatives of Acworth reached out to NH Broadband shortly after the organization’s founding. He said the COVID-19 pandemic served as a catalyst for communities seeking faster Internet.
“Many moved to working from home or remote learning and they were much more reliant on those services,” He said Sunday.
Most Acworth residents were getting their Internet through a combination of cellular service, satellite service and DSL service, Wheeler explained, which is delivered by telephone companies on phone lines at download speeds as slow as 7 megabits per second. But now those who sign up for the fiber-optic service can achieve Internet speeds of up to 1,000 megabits, or one gigabit, per second.
“It’s the gold standard of Internet,” Wheeler said.
According to Wheeler, the service being offered to Acworth is comprised of a network built from fiber-optic lines. These are glass threads that carry and transmit data.
But Wheeler said it’s extremely rare for rural communities like Acworth to have access to this type of service. He added there are certain challenges to installing a fiber-optic network, the primary one being hilly topography and narrow dirt roads. Further, most companies would rather connect to larger towns or cities.
“It’s spending a lot of money for not a lot of people,” he said.
In a news release from NHEC, Gregg Thibodeau, Acworth resident and lead of the town’s broadband committee, said that even with the pandemic abating, the demand on high speed Internet isn’t likely to go anywhere.
“More often folks are looking for jobs online, remote working opportunities, training, and schooling, which can be very time consuming and limited in our rural community,” he said.
Thibodeau told The Sentinel that the dramatic increase in connection speeds has made his job much easier.
As co-chair of the Acworth Conservation Commission, Thibodeau is often looking up local properties on the Internet to assess their conservation value. It used to take three to four hours, he said just to look up as many properties.
“It was like looking at candy that you couldn’t have,” he said Sunday.
But now that job is done in under five minutes.
“It’s incredible,” he said. “It’s comparable to when the town first got electricity.”
Currently, NH Broadband is working on connecting fiber-optic service to pre-registered Acworth residents, which Wheeler said should finish up within the next few months.
Hunter Oberst can be reached at 355-8585, or [email protected].
These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org.
As your daily newspaper, we are committed to providing you with important local news coverage for Sullivan County and the surrounding areas.