'A big difference in our lives:' Reliable broadband comes to rural Tuscarawas County

• With the help of federal dollars, Spectrum has expanded broadband to households in southern Tuscarawas County.
• In the past, some residents had to sit in their driveway or drive to the top of a hill to talk on their cellphones.
• Rural residents say they now get to live like people in town.

TUSCARAWAS COUNTY ‒ Shannon Hursey will never forget the day she saw a Spectrum truck parked in the driveway of her Washington Township home.

It was Aug. 12, 2022. She was returning home from having knee replacement surgery.

"I made my husband go out and ask them what they were doing there, because we were so excited that they were actually doing stuff on the lines and everything," she recalled. "I always remember the date, and then it was October when we finally got through all that and were able to connect to Spectrum and become a customer."

The Hurseys now had fiber optic broadband service, and their lives were transformed.

Before, they relied on spotty internet and cellphone service. There was one spot in their driveway where a cellphone would work. When the leaves were on the trees, they had no service.

"We love where we're at, but there's always been a disconnect," Hursey said. "We're literally only 7.2 miles from the light in Newcomerstown. So, you would think at 7 miles that you'd be able to get some sort of modern conveniences. We never were."

Now, Hursey, who is director of transportation for Access Tusc, can attend virtual meetings for work and Facetime with her grandson. She and her husband, Kevin, have been binge-watching shows on Netflix.

"It's made a big difference in our lives that we get to actually just live like people in town," she said.

Expansion of broadband

Access to broadband in rural areas of Ohio has long been a problem, including in Tuscarawas County. According to the Ohio Department of Development, up to 1 million Ohioans do not have access to high-speed internet.

While the need for reliable, affordable high-speed broadband for students, workers and businesses has existed for years, the COVID-19 pandemic made the situation worse as the shutdown shifted learning and work online. The pandemic forced districts to go to remote learning in 2020, but many households did not have internet. To help students do their necessary classwork, area school districts created internet hot spots at schools and churches.

Internet expansion:Spectrum expands broadband access in rural areas of southern Tuscarawas County

But in the last couple of years, Spectrum has expanded internet, mobile phone, TV and voice services to residents of Clay, Oxford, Perry, Rush, Salem and Washington townships through the company's fiber optic network.

The project was paid for in part with money from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, a program of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Spectrum bid on locations around the country where broadband is lacking, and it won a little more than 1 million, including 115,000 in Ohio. To do the work, the company received about $1 billion from the federal government and contributed $4 billion of its own money.

Able to work from home

Jennifer and Steve Freeland of Rush Township have had Spectrum service for about a year. "It's very nice, fast," Jennifer said.

Jennifer, who is a clinical operations analyst for Cleveland Clinic Union Hospital in Dover, can work from home and do Zoom meetings. "I can actually be in a meeting and not sit there and be spinning. It's a lot better than before," she said.

Their son, Hayden, who will be a junior at Indian Valley High School this fall, is able to do his schoolwork at home and play video games with his friends. He has a gaming room with three computers where his friends can come and play games.

"He can have his friends back there gaming, all three of them, and we can watch TV out here, no problem," she said.

The family has also started a business renting campers, which is all online. Broadband access has helped it grow.

We can talk on the cellphone'

Lorri and Kevin Sullivan of Perry Township have had Spectrum for about a month and a half. Now they can pay bills online and do telehealth from home.

The Sullivans have lived in their house on Sandy Ridge Road just outside of West Chester with their five children since 1994. For years, they had no TV or internet. Instead, they enjoyed listening to Cleveland Indians games on the radio.

"We'd take the speakers to our stereo and put them in the windows and from 7 o'clock to about 9:30 every night we'd listen to Tom Hamilton and Herb Score call the games. Nobody missed anything. It was a lot of fun," Kevin said.

But after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, they decided they needed television, so they got a dish.

The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated that they needed reliable broadband service. By that time, their youngest child, then 13-year-old Chandler, was the only one still living at home.

"During COVID, that was not an easy time for anybody around here, because you have to do everything remote. They're wanting you to watch YouTube videos. Well, we can't watch a YouTube video. That just didn't work," Lorri said.

Indian Valley Local Schools, where Chandler attended, set up a place to access the internet at the West Chester Senior Center, but Lorri said she was never able to log on. So, they often had to go to the nearest library for service, which was in Freeport.

"Just to pay bills and do that kind of stuff sometimes was impossible with the internet service we had here. So, I had to go to the library or the top of the hill," she said. They could get a cellphone signal if they drove to the hill where Sandy Ridge Road intersects with Ohio 258.

Now, with their Spectrum service, "We can talk on the cellphone. That's huge. That's freeing," Lorri said.

Reach Jon at 330-364-8415 or at jon.baker@timesreporter.com.