Letter to the editor: County's broadband infrastructure spending is a bad investment

June 28, 2022

In response to last week's article First Washtenaw County household connected as a result of county’s broadband infrastructure investment

I really do not understand the intelligence of the people that control the purse strings in Washtenaw County. The county is spending $15 Million to install internet in 3,000 homes that currently have no access to the internet. That is approximately $5,000 a home. They are looking at speeds upwards of 25 MPS which is terrible. The same 3,000 houses could have had Starlink Internet for $110.00 a month and a set up fee of $600.00 (likely cheaper with 3,000 homes). This would had a start up cost of $1.8 million and if they paid the first years fees another $3.6 million for a total cost of $5.4 Million. This internet would have speeds up to 1,000 MBS and installation would have been immediate. And they are many other companies besides Starlink with lower costs involved. Now some people will say that expecting people to spend $100 a month is unreasonable? If they lived in a current coverage area that is about what they would be paying for reliable internet service. That is a savings of close to $10 million dollars. Gee what could we have possibly used 10 Million dollars for? I guess we will never find out?

Donald Vescoso
Manchester

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by Sara Swanson

Sara Swanson is an editor, writer and founder of the Manchester Mirror.