Opportunity Florida seeks grant to expand high speed internet to North Florida

County commissioners have thrown support behind a program that could bring high speed internet to more areas of North Florida including Franklin County. The commission has signed a resolution of support for the group Opportunity Florida which is seeking federal money to install broadband infrastructure to eight North Florida counties reaching from Franklin and Gulf counties along the coast to Holmes and Jackson counties along the Georgia border. If the grant is approved, Opportunity Florida would get 25 million dollars to provide broadband infrastructure which could include fiber optic lines or towers to provide wireless internet. Opportunity Florida said there are currently a number of unserved or underserved areas in the eight counties that currently can only get dial up internet service and this grant could help provide those areas with high speed internet. Opportunity Florida said it would not actually provide internet, just the infrastructure – it would have to enter into agreements with existing internet service providers like Fairpoint Communications or Medicacom to actually provide internet service. Those companies would have to pay to use the infrastructure and since Franklin County would own a portion of the system and the infrastructure would use county right of ways, its possible the county could see some revenue from the project. Opportunity Florida said their grant application is due by August the 14th and we will know if the grant was approved within 60 days of that date.