Is York ready for UFD's 'gigabit revolution'?
United Fiber & Data seeks York's interest for ultra high-speed Internet.
Jolene Tolbert wants York to be enticing for more high-paying jobs that college graduates want. The self-described stay-at-home mom and personal trainer said she wants her kids to want to come back and live in York instead of thinking there's nothing cool going on here.
That is what brought Tolbert, 49, to United Fiber & Data's Gigabit Revolution meeting Wednesday morning at Martin Library. She was among 85 people who signed up to learn more about bringing extremely high-speed Internet to York.
Tolbert recently moved back to York after living near Kansas City and Chattanooga, Tennessee, up-and-coming gigabit communities that have seen massive investments from tech-savvy startups to data heavyweights like Google and Volkswagen.
Consumer interest — indeed consumer demand — is exactly what organizers of Wednesday's meeting were trying to drive up.
Bringing that Internet connectivity to York requires consumer demand, which will turn into investment, explained Kelly Lewis, president and CEO of Lewis Strategic. The Mechanicsburg firm has consulted on a number of Internet projects around the state.
If people aren't asking for it, companies won't build it near them, he said.
United Fiber & Data of York plans to run fiber-optic line from New York City through York, to Ashburn, Virginia. This would provide communities such as York, Hanover and Reading with Internet speeds faster than consumers there have ever seen.
Data companies make decisions on where to invest their billions, and Pennsylvania isn't high on their lists, said John Dolmetsch, president and CIO of Business Information Group, a local telecommunications engineering firm working with UFD to engineer and design its data network.
People and businesses in York aren't asking for high-speed Internet. Just asking, Lewis said, is extremely simple. Project proponents encouraged people to take a 12-question survey, which will demonstrate local interest.
A $1.5 million grant from the state Department of Community and Economic Development's Broadband Outreach & Aggregation Fund is set to pay for technology action plans for any interested organizations — from hospitals and schools to pizza shops and boutiques — that want to prepare for high-speed Internet.
Organizations are required to fill out the survey, which is being used as a feasibility study, in order to demonstrate their interest in the project and being involved with its inception in York.
Proponents of the project want investors to flock to York, and they see that as a likely possibility.
"The revolution is how to ask," Lewis said after the meeting. "We're teaching people how to ask. Asking creates demand. Without demand, investment goes elsewhere."
Contact Mark Walters at 771-2032 or follow him on Twitter at @walt_walters.