“Once this build is complete, if there’s not additional funding on the heels of it to do more fiber, we can get there with wireless, in very short order, meaning, days,” Boyd said. Right now, Skyrunner’s cost per location is a staggering $5,600, highlighting the financial challenges of providing reliable high-speed internet to everyone in the county, however, the gigabit-capable, “future-proof” fiber can carry the capacity to serve others, once it’s complete.Ĭommissioners asked Boyd specifically about the scalability of the build, particularly in regard to another rugged, remote area just east of Lake Logan - Little East Fork, near Camp Daniel Boone. Once it’s done, customers will still have to pay a nominal installation fee and then monthly subscription costs, but they won’t be directly charged for Skyrunner’s buildout. Skyrunner must complete the project within 24 months. “Those are some of the most unserved areas in the region that wireless product really suffers to cover, because of the nature of those really tight valleys that exist out there,” said Boyd. The $1.7 million Skyrunner project will result in a fiber-only buildout on Haywood EMC poles in Crabtree, Fines Creek, on Rush Fork Road, ending near Lake Logan.
Haywood County’s rugged mountain topography can sometimes be cost-prohibitive in terms of expanding internet service, wireless or not. “We help a lot of folks that live in some really unique places.”
“This project that has been awarded to us will allow us to reach a little bit farther in areas we can’t really reach with our wireless product,” Boyd said. “A lot of the large providers have simply fallen asleep at the wheel when it comes to rural America,” Boyd said.Ĭurrently, Skyrunner serves about 2,000 homes and businesses in Haywood County as a fixed wireless broadband provider, with installations on Chambers Mountain. Haywood County’s contribution to Skyrunner’s match, which will come from President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan funding, is 49 percent or $256,742. Recently, Skyrunner was awarded a grant of $1.2 million, and had to match it with $532,963 of their own money. Boyd, president of Skyrunner - made an application to the NC Department of Information Technology to access the GREAT grant funds. No one living can remember a time when there wasn’t a paper mill at the heart of Canton.…Īround 10 months ago, the Haywood County Broadband Committee - Southwestern Commission Director of Community and Economic Development Russ Harris and J.J.
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