Cameron Booth: Southeast Ohio Broadband Cooperative working to expand internet services to residents
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MARIETTA, Ohio — Southeast Ohio Broadband Cooperative Project Coordinator Cameron Booth has his feet on the ground working to expand internet services to Ohio residents' homes one area at a time.
The cooperative was formed in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic in an effort to help connect residents in rural communities with better broadband services since much business, schooling and communications in general were being conducted online. Booth said the cooperative's main goal is to help communities secure better access to the internet.
"That’s our main goal because when COVID first started, the cooperative first started because of that. A lot of kids in the counties were not able to get online and do schooling, and everyone had to go online. And in a lot of the areas here, especially in Washington County and other counties, their broadband or internet hasn’t been modernized at all. So we’re working, basically, with a 20-year gap trying to update the internet and get people online and back to the modern way because the internet is a necessity now with the way the age is going and how everything is getting modernized," Booth said.
Booth joined the company in spring 2021 and has since worked out of Washington County, Ohio, helping communities lacking broadband access.
"It’s my job to figure out how to get onto the state towers and go to people’s houses and check them out and see if there’s a possibility to get them internet or if we need more resources to get them internet. I try to get onto whatever towers we can. I go door-to-door, I do whatever I can do to help," he said.
The company is currently working to help connect the southwest area of Washington County with internet services. Booth said it will next focus on providing service in Monroe and Noble counties.
"I work with county entities like county commissioners. I work with some state agencies like the state MARCS (Multi-Agency Radio Communications System) towers — we coordinate with them whenever we go to a tower, how long we're going to be there, what kind of work we'll be doing there," he said, adding that they work with different companies to inquire about how best to connect to the towers in the area. "They help us with what would be the best location."
Over the summer, the Switzerland of Ohio Local School District began working with SOBC to find options for broadband expansion throughout Monroe County. The cooperative is helping decipher what areas are most in need of internet services by conducting a speed test survey among residents. With the data collected through the speed test, it will be able to create a map that will aid in efforts to improve broadband in the community. The map will help to point out what the current assets are, such as towers, or what type of systems would best work out between the different wireless options.
Booth said the townships, villages and counties work to obtain funding so SOBC can get the necessary broadband in their area.
"Because we are not a for-profit organization, we have to, right now, try to get enough equipment and beat the cost of getting equipment to new places and try to get to a point where we can help communities do that at a later time,” he said.
Looking toward the future, Booth is hoping everyone will one day have access to internet service.
"Our main goal is for everyone that wants the internet to have it. That's our overlapping goal. I think we would also like to see a little bit of the way the communities have been lately, in the way people have been themselves have been great. I think just more of that in general, people helping each other. That's what we'd like to see — neighbors helping neighbors, especially during the pandemic and just how it is today and keep that theme going," he added.
For those who are lacking service in the southeast Ohio region, Booth encourages them to contact the cooperative to see what they can do to assist.
"For people that don't have internet or don't have very good internet, we are making strides and we are coming. Unfortunately, we just can't hook up everyone at once and we can't do everything at once, even though we’d like to. But we are making strides to get everyone hooked up," he said.
Communities who would like the cooperative's assistance with acquiring service in their area can visit its website at seobc.us or call Booth at 740-538-0084.