The ongoing federal government shutdown is negatively impacting local area efforts to provide broadband internet access in rural sections of Louisa County.
Other contributing delay factors have been the recent heavy periods of rain and the increased cost of steel needed to fabricate a signal tower that added approximately $10,000 dollars in construction expenses.
But the government shutdown prevents the FCC from issuing permits to install the necessary equipment to send signals from tower to tower in a secure network:
OFFICIAL: “Lately, they’ve been going up to 6 to 8 months – and, now when they come back in to being open again we don’t know how long that’s going to take.”
The broadband authority could get around the FCC issue:
OFFICIAL: “Right now they’d probably be using unlicensed equipment …
The authority already has a provider lined up that could install its own temporary — and unlicensed — equipment until the shutdown is over.