Broadband became a hot topic in Monroe County at the beginning of this decade when, because of the Covid pandemic, schools were practicing virtual or online learning. Many students either didn’t have connectivity, had insufficient connectivity, or had frequent involuntarily disconnections. It was hard, even impossible, to learn online with an inadequate or no internet service. Students were even faulted for disconnecting from class. Concurrently, there were farms and possibly other home-based businesses that took priority on the internet over students’ studies.

The Monroe County Board of Supervisors created the Broadband Special Committee which had its first meeting on May 25th, 2021 with ten people listed as members present along with several non-members. County Board Chairman Cedric Schnitzler and County Administrator Tina Osterberg were initially and actively involved. County Board Vice Chairman Wallace Habhegger was a visitor at the first meeting and is a member today. Six of the original members are listed as members today – three and a-half years later. This continuity including top leadership has contributed to the success of their efforts. It also helps that the County Board made broadband one of its priorities.

Another contributing factor was this committee “hit the ground running” with outside speakers to include representatives from Taylor County to share their knowledge. Taylor County was already taking the steps that Monroe County was about to begin.

This committee had a need to determine the current status and future needs of broadband in Monroe County. The bigger and more significant mission was finding and applying for monies from state and federal programs. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provides $65 billion to connect all Americans to high-speed broadband internet. The American Recovery Plan Act (ARPA) is also a significant source of federal funds. Simply put, the results of bringing broadband to all of Monroe County could be more impactful than the Rural Electrification Act of 1936 that brought electricity down a lot of country roads.

Initially, the Broadband Special Committee was working with four vendors. They were Vernon Community Cooperative, Coon Valley Telephone Company, Hillsboro Telephone Cooperative, and Lynxx (located in Camp Douglas). Today there are thirteen Internet Service Providers with customers in Monroe County.

The January 27, 2022 Monroe County Herald article by Pat Mulvaney titled “County seeks letters of support for broadband effort” was noteworthy for two reasons, First, it was a comprehensive update on the broadband effort in Monroe County to include both accomplishments and obstacles. Second it asked for citizens to get involved with pertinent personal letters to support the applications for grant money. These personal stories of need would make it a more noteworthy application.

The yardstick to measure broadband is “Broadband Access-Serviceable Locations (BSLs). Monroe County has a total of 20,252 BSLs further described as 11,892 (58.72%) “Served” and 8,360 (47.27%) “Underserved, Unserved, or No Service” (June 2023 data). “Broadband service” is defined as an internet service with a minimum speed 100/20 Mbps.

While we already addressed government funding for the infrastructure, no discussion would be complete without consumer costs. Digesting a page of data on household costs is summarized by stating broadband costs average 1.17% of household income.

This surge in interest for broadband access came from the virtual learning efforts during the pandemic. Virtual learning, while not the entire school population as it was during the pandemic, is here to stay. The Cooperative Educational Services Agency 4 (CESA 4) which serves all of Monroe County and most of the Coulee Region even has a major division “Digital Learning and Leadership” which provides leadership in planning and learning around impactful technology. It further references “Wisconsin Digital Learning Plan (c2016)”. This surge may also be impacted by “work from home” and a variety of small businesses that are connected to servicing agencies by the internet.

This is not “mission complete” by any means, but rather “progress in motion”.

Monroe County’s Broadband Special Committee meets the 4th Tuesday at 5:00 p.m. at the Monroe County Courthouse.

[EDITOR'S NOTE] While this is only a snapshot of broadband in Monroe County, I am highly interested in readers in each of the other greater Coulee Region counties (Buffalo, Trempealeau, Jackson, Vernon, La Crosse, & Crawford) to provide us a similar snapshot of your county broadband efforts.