Newton County to see major broadband expansion

NEWTON COUNTY, Mo. — A big broadband expansion plan is now in the works for much of Newton County.

"I don't have high speed internet service without some kind of satellite provider at the house," said Dr. Chett Daniel, rural Newton Co. resident.

He's excited about the high-speed internet opportunities that are coming from a broadband task force created a couple of years ago.

"People who worked at Crowder College, the school district, hospital systems, rural clinic systems, people that worked within law enforcement and emergency services," said Daniel.

That's led to a 6.9 million dollar broadband contract.

Newton County commissioners approved the construction of a backbone fiber optic line by ALLO Communications next year.

"We chose to spend those funds on middle mile connectivity, and what that is, is basically the pipeline across the county. So from the northwest to the southeast, we're going to have roughly 60 miles of middle mile fiber," said Alan Cook, Newton Co. commissioner.

It traces from northwest Newton County near Joplin running southeast past Diamond and Granby.

The middle mile creates a robust core to build out high-speed internet to areas lacking in a good internet connection.

"We wrote into the contract where other providers could, could actually tap in to that middle mile pipeline, ALLO, their intent is to do that. But you know, for to scale quickly and to get to as many citizens as we can," said Cook.

ARPA funding is paying for the initial costs in this project.

Commissioners hope to see further broadband expansion in rural areas farther away from the middle, funded by grants from the federal Broadband Equity Access and Deployment program.