Published: April 21, 2008 12:14 pm      

Somerset County looks to close technology gap

SOMERSET — Dr. Thomas Anderson, a radiologist at Somerset Hospital, lives at Hidden Valley - just nine miles from his office.

But the technological separation is far greater.

"The hospital can send MRI reports to India and have them read and replied back before they can get them to their own radiologist at Hidden Valley," said Somerset County Commissioner Jimmy Marker.

For all the emphasis being placed on the completion of Route 219 or construction of the Quemahoning Pipeline, officials concede bringing high-speed Internet to rural homes may be the toughest, most critical problem facing Somerset County.

"We all realize, while water lines, highways and sewage are keys, that we are dealing with a situation that we are going to be increasingly behind other, more competitive areas in the state if we do not solve the high-speed issue," County Commissioner Chairwoman Pamela Tokar-Ickes said.

The problem basically comes down to supply and demand: Verizon, the main telecommunications company in the county, has to see enough demand to bring high-speed service to those areas.

But with homes spread out over the rolling countryside, proving that demand can be trying.

Despite battling the high-speed dilemma on four fronts, Marker said Verizon is the linchpin.

"Unfortunately," Marker said, "Verizon is the horizon."

Four years ago, Bill Riggs, president of Somerset Welding and Steel in Lincoln Township, began using Sting Communications to provide high-speed Internet to his company.

"It was not difficult for us, because we just assumed a long time ago that we have to pay whatever price we have to pay to get a large enough connection for our needs," Riggs said.

Now, Riggs serves as an aggregator for Verizon, trying to get enough customers in Lincoln and neighboring Jenner townships to agree to purchase DSL to justify Verizon coming in.

Riggs said the effort, which involves everything from direct mailings to telephone calls, has been going "very slowly."

In some cases, the aggregators have been effective. Commissioners point to Salisbury, Friedens, Confluence.

But because the initiative isn't moving quickly in other areas, officials are attacking the problem in other ways as well.

That includes an agreement that allows Public Benefit Broadband to have access to the county's 911 towers; an initiative by the Somerset County Chamber of Commerce; and perhaps modeling after a program under way in Cambria County.

"Cambria County has been very successful up there, delivering high-speed service to the entire county," Tokar-Ickes said.

"We'll be sitting down and talking to the Cambria County commissioners, as well as their key partners, to find out how they did it."

Tokar-Ickes realizes bringing the county into the technological age won't be easy.

"There's no one solution for us," she said. "Rural areas don't have the huge numbers for the existing telecommunications companies to come in with ready-made markets. That's a challenge.

"We're getting there. Unfortunately, it's not been fast enough right now."

Marker said businesses are finding it harder and harder to download information quickly without high-speed access.

"If we don't make a major leap ahead, the gap will continue to widen between the information available and the ability to download that information," he said. "That places us behind."