MONTICELLO - Rural towns have been behind major cities for internet and cellular access since the beginning of each service. Locally, there is only mild optimism that anything will change.
"There's fiber (optic internet) in New Glarus, and there's fiber in Monroe," said Al Brokopp, Monticello school administrator and president of the Monticello Chamber of Commerce. "It goes by (Monticello) - just hasn't made it to town yet."
Brokopp said the school itself uses a different provider than regular residents or businesses, called WiscNet, which is available for K-12 schools.
"In February, we're getting upgraded to a gigabyte," Brokopp said. "The speed at the school is fine for all that we do, but our third- through 12th-graders have their own devices to take home. That's where it becomes a problem."
Monticello schools, like Monroe and many other area schools, have upgraded technology for students to take home to do school work or continue a lesson. With slower internet speeds, some students often find themselves at a disadvantage.
Brokopp said the school is also affected based on Monticello's population and economy.
"I know of businesses and families who didn't relocate to town because of our broadband speeds. That hurts us as a community," he said.
Greenwoods State Bank has its own workaround for the issue that brand manager Janet Holtz was unable to discuss, but as a resident of Monticello that uses TDS Telecom, she understands the frustration.
"TDS is horrible, awful," Holtz said. "We're not bringing in businesses because of our lack of technology. We have a beautiful business park, but the internet is horribly frustrating."
Gempeler's Supermarket uses TDS for its broadband service, and on Monday the upload speed was 14.1 megabits per second while the download speed was a paltry .78 Mbps, according to SpeedTest.com, a website supervisor Connie Von Der Heide used to check the speed at the store. The supermarket doesn't just use the internet for running credit cards. The store also has to link to purchase goods online, making things difficult when speeds drop.
"We have an office full of computers to get information," Von Der Heide said. "(The internet) is extremely slow, and we're less productive because of it."
TDS spokesperson DeAnne Boegli said that in one recent case, a Monticello customer was complaining of extremely slow speeds, but that a dysfunctional modem was to blame and that better speeds came with new equipment.
"If customers are having trouble with their speeds, we advise them to call in to the repair team to help troubleshoot," Boegli said.
Boegli said TDS offers maximum speeds between 15 and 50 Mbps in Monticello, but challenges persist with much of the rural areas in the region. Frontier and AT&T also offer cabled connections. Frontier offers a plan of up to 6 Mbps for $20 per month. AT&T claims to have speeds up to 75 Mbps at a rate of $50 per month.
On July 20, Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin held a roundtable at Monticello schools with representatives of the village board, school district and the chamber of commerce. Brokopp, who was present for the discussion regarding area broadband, said some things were supposed to change but haven't yet.
"We understand these customers need greater investment in the networks which connect them," Boegli said. "The Monticello market areas will be in the next round of broadband grant funding requests."
She added that TDS has about 200 customers in the Monticello area.
Ninety-six percent of Wisconsin's population has a hard-wired internet service provider, according to a Wisconsin State Journal article published June 4, and 92 percent of residents can access the internet with speeds of at least 10 Mbps. Still, 232,000 Wisconsin residents are unable to access the internet from their homes at all.
The office of Gov. Scott Walker released a statement Oct. 11, announcing that the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin was accepting applications for a second round of Broadband Expansion Grants to be extended by $7.5 million for "underserved areas of the state." Applications are due Jan. 25. State Broadband Director Angie Dickison urged communities to contact the office for more information about the grant program in the release.
TDS received funding to improve speeds from the Connect America fund, one of many grants given to internet service providers in recent years. Most notably, the Federal Communications Commission has given nearly $1 billion to ISPs to offset the cost of building a stronger network and reach.
In November, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai announced a renewed effort to end what is known as "net neutrality." The effort was passed by FCC members in a 3-2 Republican majority vote Dec. 14. Doing so gives internet service providers the ability to charge websites different prices for various speeds, among other potential effects. Many of the streaming services, like Netflix, YouTube and Hulu, are openly opposed to the change, as streaming video takes up more bandwidth than other types of internet usage and they may have to pay higher costs to upgrade to a faster service.
To offset costs, those websites and apps could then drastically increase the price for consumers subscribing to services - or add new subscriber services if not already offered.
Living without Hulu or Netflix as it stands might not hurt rural Green County residents much, however.
"If my son is playing online with his PlayStation, no one can use the internet," Holtz said. "If we have two devices running, we get a spinning wheel."
Von Der Heide is in a similar position.
"They have three different price points, but I didn't bother going to the highest one because I figured, 'What's the difference?'" Von Der Heide said. "It's not real speedy at home. If I try to watch a video, it doesn't work."
"There's fiber (optic internet) in New Glarus, and there's fiber in Monroe," said Al Brokopp, Monticello school administrator and president of the Monticello Chamber of Commerce. "It goes by (Monticello) - just hasn't made it to town yet."
Brokopp said the school itself uses a different provider than regular residents or businesses, called WiscNet, which is available for K-12 schools.
"In February, we're getting upgraded to a gigabyte," Brokopp said. "The speed at the school is fine for all that we do, but our third- through 12th-graders have their own devices to take home. That's where it becomes a problem."
Monticello schools, like Monroe and many other area schools, have upgraded technology for students to take home to do school work or continue a lesson. With slower internet speeds, some students often find themselves at a disadvantage.
Brokopp said the school is also affected based on Monticello's population and economy.
"I know of businesses and families who didn't relocate to town because of our broadband speeds. That hurts us as a community," he said.
Greenwoods State Bank has its own workaround for the issue that brand manager Janet Holtz was unable to discuss, but as a resident of Monticello that uses TDS Telecom, she understands the frustration.
"TDS is horrible, awful," Holtz said. "We're not bringing in businesses because of our lack of technology. We have a beautiful business park, but the internet is horribly frustrating."
Gempeler's Supermarket uses TDS for its broadband service, and on Monday the upload speed was 14.1 megabits per second while the download speed was a paltry .78 Mbps, according to SpeedTest.com, a website supervisor Connie Von Der Heide used to check the speed at the store. The supermarket doesn't just use the internet for running credit cards. The store also has to link to purchase goods online, making things difficult when speeds drop.
"We have an office full of computers to get information," Von Der Heide said. "(The internet) is extremely slow, and we're less productive because of it."
TDS spokesperson DeAnne Boegli said that in one recent case, a Monticello customer was complaining of extremely slow speeds, but that a dysfunctional modem was to blame and that better speeds came with new equipment.
"If customers are having trouble with their speeds, we advise them to call in to the repair team to help troubleshoot," Boegli said.
Boegli said TDS offers maximum speeds between 15 and 50 Mbps in Monticello, but challenges persist with much of the rural areas in the region. Frontier and AT&T also offer cabled connections. Frontier offers a plan of up to 6 Mbps for $20 per month. AT&T claims to have speeds up to 75 Mbps at a rate of $50 per month.
On July 20, Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin held a roundtable at Monticello schools with representatives of the village board, school district and the chamber of commerce. Brokopp, who was present for the discussion regarding area broadband, said some things were supposed to change but haven't yet.
"We understand these customers need greater investment in the networks which connect them," Boegli said. "The Monticello market areas will be in the next round of broadband grant funding requests."
She added that TDS has about 200 customers in the Monticello area.
Ninety-six percent of Wisconsin's population has a hard-wired internet service provider, according to a Wisconsin State Journal article published June 4, and 92 percent of residents can access the internet with speeds of at least 10 Mbps. Still, 232,000 Wisconsin residents are unable to access the internet from their homes at all.
The office of Gov. Scott Walker released a statement Oct. 11, announcing that the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin was accepting applications for a second round of Broadband Expansion Grants to be extended by $7.5 million for "underserved areas of the state." Applications are due Jan. 25. State Broadband Director Angie Dickison urged communities to contact the office for more information about the grant program in the release.
TDS received funding to improve speeds from the Connect America fund, one of many grants given to internet service providers in recent years. Most notably, the Federal Communications Commission has given nearly $1 billion to ISPs to offset the cost of building a stronger network and reach.
In November, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai announced a renewed effort to end what is known as "net neutrality." The effort was passed by FCC members in a 3-2 Republican majority vote Dec. 14. Doing so gives internet service providers the ability to charge websites different prices for various speeds, among other potential effects. Many of the streaming services, like Netflix, YouTube and Hulu, are openly opposed to the change, as streaming video takes up more bandwidth than other types of internet usage and they may have to pay higher costs to upgrade to a faster service.
To offset costs, those websites and apps could then drastically increase the price for consumers subscribing to services - or add new subscriber services if not already offered.
Living without Hulu or Netflix as it stands might not hurt rural Green County residents much, however.
"If my son is playing online with his PlayStation, no one can use the internet," Holtz said. "If we have two devices running, we get a spinning wheel."
Von Der Heide is in a similar position.
"They have three different price points, but I didn't bother going to the highest one because I figured, 'What's the difference?'" Von Der Heide said. "It's not real speedy at home. If I try to watch a video, it doesn't work."