The South Georgia Regional Information Technology Authority (SGRita pronounced S G Rita) is proud to announce that construction is well under way on the 6 county wireless broadband project covering Calhoun, Baker, Miller, Early, Mitchell and Seminole Counties in Southwest Georgia.
In phase I of the project a 340 mbp (megabit) Internet backbone was installed around the initial 5 county area of Calhoun, Baker, Miller, Early and Mitchell. See the attached map.
The objective in Phase I is to provide service to the underserved and unserved schools in the initial 5 county area. Once phase I is delivered, each school in Miller, Early, Baker and Calhoun Counties will have an Internet connection at least 20 times faster than they previously utilized from other providers. By becoming part of the SGRita digital community, they are helping SGRita provide service to almost every home in the 5 county area. This is a real WIN WIN situation for the families, farms and businesses in the ever growing SGRita territory.
Phase II of the project will launch in September. During the first 4 months SGRita will evaluate a wide variety of equipment to establish the standard that will be used to connect all farms, homes and businesses in the unserved and underserved communities of the SGRita coverage area to the Internet. Phase II will be a "fixed wireless" deployment. This means that equipment will be installed on a local tower that broadcasts the High Speed Internet signal, much like a cell phone tower broadcasts cell service. For you to have service on the SGRita network, equipment will need to be installed at your home connecting you to the tower. Likely this will be a small outside device that looks similar to a satellite TV dish but it will be square. A cable from that device will be installed into your home and connected to your computer or wireless router. At that point your home will be on a new blazing fast service that is 40 to 50 times faster than dial up and always connected. Once the equipment decision is made, this equipment will first be installed on the initial 17 backbone towers pictured above. Then a detailed network of other towers will be deployed so that this High Speed Internet Service is deployed to 95% of all homes in the 5 county area. This phase will take many months and will likely be broken into regions to streamline the buildout and project management components.
About SGRita....
SGRita is a State of Georgia recognized multi-county authority which was formed through local legislation that was passed by our state legislators. Each county first voted in their regular county commission meetings passing a resolution to join the SGRita group. At this point Seminole has completed the process and will join SGRita in January 2009. Merger talks are under way with Randolph, Clay, Stewart, Quitmann, Terrell, Grady and Decatur counties.
The SGRita group is governed by a Board of Directors made up of two representatives from each county. Typically the County Commission Chairman for the county and another representative are selected to serve. Lee Conner in Arlington was the Chairman and worked closely with Marty McLendon of the Flint River Soil and Water Conservation Distrcit and Nancy Cobb of One Georgia to take the project through the metamorphosis from a "FRS&WCD Pilot Broadband Project" to a funcitonal sustaining business that provides a much needed service to the community. This project will increase crop yield, reduce water usage, enhance our children's learning ability and provide economical growth for the region as businesses gain a workable connection to the outside world. Since many home buyers today use the availability of High Speed Internet as a deciding factor, having this service blanket the 5 county area might even help bolster a struggling housing market.
How is it funded....
SGRita applied for One Georgia Funding over two years ago asking for the the funds necessary to builout the network. The One Georgia Authority was formed by Governor Sunny Purdue to provide funds to spawn economic development in various industries all over the State of Georgia. To date they have hundreds of projects with tens of millions dollars in grants and low interest loans. Through the partnership with One Georgia and the Flint River Soil and Water Conservation District, this project was possible. To learn more about One Georgia and how it can help your project, visit http://www.onegeorgia.org/ A speical thanks to Mrs. Nancy Cobb for all of her hard work and the tens of thousands of miles that she has driven in support of projects throughout the state.
The objective is to provide service to our schools, farms, homes and businesses in the unserved or underserved areas of Southwest Georgia. The counties have to match a percentage of all awards. In the initial project the Flint River Soil and Water Conservation District, chaired by Mr. Marty McLendon, agreed to provide the matching funds. As other counties enter into the SGrita group, arrangements will have to be made for their matching funds as future funds are requested. But it is always easier to add to an existing network than to start all over again.
The Pilot Project.....
Over three years ago the Flint River Soil and Water Conservation District installed a 100 square mile Wireless Broadband Pilot to serve as a proof of concept for the 5 County Wireless Initiative. Their goal was to use the Wireless Internet connection to the fields to gain the ability to remote monitor and one day remote control their irrigation and autostear activities at all of their farming locations. You see with the Internet available at every irrigation pivot, the farmer can install other equipment that can monitor and report soil moisture reading, the speed and gallons per minute that each irrigation unit is pumping and much, much more. The farmer can use local cameras to ensure that the irrigation is running and that the pivots are working as they should. The University or Georgia worked with the Flint to define GIS mappings of the fields. This data allowed them to develop a software program that can be used with variable speed irrigation equipment to reduce the amount of water that was used by several hundred million gallons in one year.
With a GPS sensor on the end of the irrigation boom, the software knows the position of the boom and with the soil moisture data and the GIS data, the program knows exactly how much water that areas needs. This maximizes crop yield and minimizes water use. This also reduces costs through reduced chemical use and reduce fuel or electrical costs through more accurate irrigation practices (aka less watering). Much of the technology in use by the Flint was developed through the Georgia Agricultural Innovation Center in Tifton under the watchful eye of their Director Bill Boone. Famers throughout the region and the world have this team to thanks for much of the technology commercially available today.
This also gives the farmer much needed peace of mind that his crops have what they need when they need it. And the ability to log in and check the status of an irrigation pivot without driving hundreds of miles to dozens of fields.
Added benefits come with the Internet at the farm. The most recent chemical and equipment information is available and the family has a decent connection for schoolwork or home businesses.
For more information on SGRita, visit our website at http://www.sgrita.org/
Ron Ham
SGRita Phase I Project Manager
