Residents all over the Brazos Valley will soon be able to access high-speed internet for a fraction of what they’re paying now, if the Brazos Valley Council of Governments has its way.
Assistant Executive Director Michael Parks told Grimes County Commissioners recently, the COG had obtained a federal grant to construct a fiber optic loop through all seven of its counties to service Brazos Valley medical facilities. And once that’s done, he told the court, it’ll be available to everybody for much less than they are paying now.
And Parks said he really means “much”, too. Like a buck a megabite, instead of the $80 some are paying now.
And since it’ll be a loop it will be incredibly reliable, he went on, because if it’s cut on one side of you, you can still access the net from the other.
But Parks warned that due to the project’s sheer size, it needs to be a cooperative effort with all political entities in the Brazos Valley. and, he added, their grant expires in June of 2019.
That means it has to be completely constructed by June, 2019, he told the court, adding the COG is providing the 35% grant match out of its own resources. And that means it’s not costing any Brazos Valley counties or cities anything upfront.
“We’re just bringing the pipe to the doorstep,” he concluded, “asking for everybody to pretty-please sign up, ’cause we gotta go pay the 35 percent bill.”
Due to some technical concerns of County Attorney Jon C. Fultz, the agreement has so-far been tabled twice by the Court. But whenever all the glitches finally get ironed out, we’ll let you know about it right here on Navasota News.
