WESTCLIFFE, Colorado — The State of Colorado is preparing to spend more than $1 billion building new high-speed broadband networks. Most of the funding comes from the bipartisan infrastructure bill passed in late 2021.
The money will be distributed through grants from the Colorado Broadband Office and promises to bring faster internet speeds to rural communities.
The West Custer County Library in Westcliffe has become a community resource for faster internet.
Janet Rhodes, the library's Administrative Co-Director, showed our cameras a new sound-proof booth built inside the library where patrons will be able to speak confidentially with their doctors during telehealth appointments.
The library received telehealth kits thanks to a state grant that can connect users to high-speed cellular data with a wi-fi hot spot.
"You can use (the kits) in the booth for legal appointments or other things that would be a long drive for people," Rhodes explained.
The library also purchased many wi-fi hot spots for cardholders to check out and connect to the internet at home. The program is very popular.
"The hot spots are always on hold," Rhodes said.
The Colorado Broadband Office created an interactive map that publishes the median upload and download speeds in all 64 counties in the state. Custer ranks near the bottom with a median download speed of 17.3 megabits per second (Mbps) and an upload speed of 3.6 Mbps.
"It is one of the areas that has the lowest internet speeds in all of Colorado," said Mark Carmel, a consultant working with Custer County to bring high-speed broadband to the region.
He said a majority of internet customers in Westcliffe and Silver Cliff have a DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) connection with typical download/upload speeds of 10-15 Mbps / 3 Mbps. Colorado's goal is to achieve download/upload speeds of 100 / 20 Mbps.
"This is a very fire-prone area, it's an area that's subject to extreme weather events," Carmel said. "In an extreme weather event or an emergency, people must have the ability to communicate."
Building a high-speed fiber network here is expensive. The cables must cross mountains and canyons. Given the county's population of roughly 4,500 residents, it would be cost-prohibitive for private companies to build the infrastructure considering the potential customer base.
Carmel said their current plan is to work with the Colorado Department of Transportation to bury the fiber cables in the highway rights of way. In 2019, the cost of such a project
The project was estimated to cost $15 million in 2019. Inflation and global supply chain problems have driven the cost estimate to more than $30 million.
"The Rocky Mountain West, we are all plagued with some of those challenges," said Brandy Reitter, Executive Director of the Colorado Broadband Office.
She said Colorado will spend $1 billion to build the infrastructure needed to bring high-speed broadband connections to 99 percent of the state. The money comes from a combination of federal and state sources with the federal Broadband Equity Accessibility and Deployment (BEAD) program making up the largest share.
"We are fine tuning our process so that when we open the application window in late summer, everybody knows what to expect for the application," Reitter said.
Governor Jared Polis wants to reach 99 percent connectivity by the end of 2027.
“We’re at about 92 percent right now, and we’re going to get that to 99 percent," Polis said.
Carmel said Custer County applied for broadband grants in the past but the Reconnect Fund program could not award enough money to cover the county's need. He said the Colorado Broadband Office advised the community to apply for a larger grant from the BEADs program.
"Custer County, the towns of Silvercliffe and Westcliffe, were the very first communities to be certified broadband ready for these grant applications."
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