Your cooperative reviewed the feasibility of a broadband rollout to the membership several years ago. We reviewed it again in 2019 through 2020 and found the same answer: a successful broadband business with marketable broadband rates would require a 20-30% residential and small commercial electric rate increase to subsidize buildout to the entirety of our membership. 

That rate increase would be on top of any other typical rate increases and would force several electric-only members to subsidize a service they did not use. CMEC had between ⅔ and ½ the potential subscribers-per-mile when compared with multiple electric cooperatives who had successfully rolled out a Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) network to their membership. 

For many months of 2020, several employees worked alongside some of the broadband industry’s most experienced consultants to evaluate and prep for the possibility of a major FTTH project constructed by CMEC. Your elected board of directors led and played and active role in spurring us on as we looked to stretch the cooperative’s resources and business model well beyond prior norms. 

In late October 2020, we participated in the FCC’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction. With tens of millions of dollars potentially available, we attempted to win sufficient government funding to financially subsidize a large-scale FTTH project while still keeping your electric rates reasonable low. Ultimately, we did not win funds because other companies participating in the RDOF auction implemented bidding strategies that drove available funds below 30% of full-award values–well below the cooperative’s minimum threshold.