By: Anna Cooper—Associate Editor

The Internet, in the span of 37 years, has become an integral part of our lives. So much so the Human Rights Council of the United Nations General Assembly declared it a human right four years ago. More people are working from home, turning to online education, exploring telehealth options, streaming movies, and surfing the web, but these things are impossible if the connection is weak or unreliable. Former Governor Bill Haslam spearheaded the Broadband Accessibility Act and signed it into law in 2017. It’s goal? To help get broadband to the 13%, or nearly 800,000, Tennesseans that do not have broadband access in their homes. 

In response to the initiative, on December 11, 2019, Southwest Tennessee Electric Membership Corporation (STEMC) and Aeneas Internet and Telephone announced a partnership to bring broadband internet to the underserved portions of West Tennessee. Prior to the 2017 Act, “it was actually illegal in the state of Tennessee for electric cooperatives to be in the broadband space; to be able to sell retail internet to its members.” William (Billy) V. Gordon, the Vice President of Engineering at STEMC, explained the ins and outs of STEMC and Aeneas’ plans in the next three to five years. 

The first thing STEMC did when they heard about the Broadband Accessibility Act was “commission a feasibility study just to see if we could even afford to do such a project. After we did, the price tag came back really, really high. Our Board looked at the study and said, ‘this is a valuable project, but retail broadband internet is new to us; in the state of Tennessee specifically. So we're going to keep it as a reference and wait a little while to see what happens with at other cooperatives in the state that have already committed to moving forward’” Gordon explained that other cooperatives in the state were going ahead with broadband projects of their own. STEMC wanted to see how well it was received by those cooperatives’ members before introducing it to their own, ensuring they would provide their members with the best service possible. 

Gordon continued, talking about what STEMC was coming to learn about electric cooperatives and broadband at the time, “after a couple of years since the signing of the Broadband Accessibility Act, the chatter about rural broadband didn't die down. It actually just got louder. Our Board wanted to commission a second study with a different vendor to see if it validated the first one. The second study came back with about the same price tag, so we knew what kind of project costs we were up against. What it said is that this project would be viable if we could check all the boxes representing milestones in the study. Included in the study were assumptions for things such as materials price, contract labor price, and interest rates. So our Board was at the point where they internalized, if we can meet all these metrics on this study, then this is a viable project. And as an electric cooperative, we're all about the members that we serve. If you pay your bill at STEMC, you have democratic participation through your elected Board of Directors. Democratic control is part of a cooperative model. Our Board was in a position to recognize our members want us to do this project, it does show based on two studies that it's a viable project, so let's give it a shot. That's where we are today.”

STEMC took a different approach from other cooperatives on just how they were going to offer broadband internet to its members. Gordon detailed the commitment and what it means for STEMC members, “some of the cooperatives in the state have created their own subsidiaries.” STEMC however, partnered with Aeneas Internet and Telephone, the company they get their own internet and phone services through. STEMC had a few reasons: “We recognize that as a cooperative, we are good at construction and project management.” By that Gordon is talking about, “poles, wire, bucket trucks—that's just what we do.” They’re good at it too. There’s been a steady improvement in the quality of the service they’ve provided over the years—it’s a key part of their business to make those reliability improvements. STEMC is striving to do the best by its members, so to get this broadband project off the ground, they wanted to stick to their strengths. Gordon continued, saying “What we have never experienced was providing sales and service for this kind of project. That's the hard part—trying to provide that intimate service people need as a part of broadband. When you think about it, some of the members in many of the places we're going to build to have never had access to the internet. So, this is going to be a new, first-time thing for them. We thought, that is not in our wheelhouse as an electric cooperative, to be able to provide service on such a technical level. That's not what we do on a day to day basis. But Aeneas has been in business for 25 years. That's what they do.”

Both STEMC and Aeneas are veterans in their respective fields. STEMC was founded in 1936 and began installing electric lines the following year. Today they provide service to parts of eleven West Tennessee counties. Aeneas was established in 1995 offering basic dial-up Internet services. Today, it provides a wide range of cutting-edge telecommunications solutions to customers in 45 counties. The STEMC-Aeneas project began construction the third week of April in South-Tipton County. “During the first year, we’re going to construct projects in locations over our entire service area. We're going do some work in South-Tipton county, we’re going to do some work in Haywood County, and we're going to do some work in Chester County. Some members have asked, why are you starting in the populated areas first?  In the rural areas, there is no infrastructure to start from. As an STEMC employee was explaining to a friend ‘you can't plug in a lamp in the middle of a room’.”

This is more than retail broadband Gordon said. “For years at STEMC, we’ve been waiting for the opportunity to build the network. We have been installing electric system devices that are intelligent enough to know how to operate the power system by themselves. Our goal is a self-healing electric network. The only piece that we're missing is the communications path between devices.” This rural broadband project will provide the communications network needed to efficiently operate the power system. STEMC is studying its electric system and developing plans to divide it into smaller electric networks. They’re looking for a “way to divide the current power system up into groups of members that are about 300 members to a block. Here's the idea with that; if you live in a location where your service can be automatically fed from a different location and a tree or a car causes a long outage, currently there may be 1200 members out while repairs are being made. The goal is to have everyone back on except for 300 members in less than a minute. That's our goal,” Gordon explained. “Right now, without a communications path, those devices can't make those decisions regarding how to restore as many members as possible. Those devices can't currently talk to each other. So, here's how it all works together. STEMC wants to operate the power system more efficiently, more effectively, to do that we need a reliable communications platform.” Working with Aeneas benefits not only STEMC members in the form of retail broadband internet, but above that it also means upgrades to the power grid. “We want to be able to provide the level of service our members expect. We've been investing in the hardware in the field up ‘til now, it is just missing the communications piece. So the way it all ties together for your community is like this: STEMC is going to invest in communication infrastructure to make a smarter electric grid that will, in turn, provide more reliable power. Since we're going through the effort to do that, we are planning on the front-end to provide enough capacity to offer retail broadband internet along the way for members that have wanted and needed it for so long. So if you invest in Aeneas Internet and Telephone by signing up for broadband internet service, your internet service in turn supports you as a STEMC member.” Completion of this project will bring one of the most advanced electric distribution systems in Tennessee to our area as well has reliable, high-speed internet.

“What an exciting time for West Tennessee!” added Stephen Thorpe, CEO of Aeneas Internet and Telephone. “For years we have worked with Southwest Tennessee Electric on various projects bringing broadband service to rural communities around West Tennessee. The need for broadband is growing rapidly, and in today's world, we really do rely on it being available to all of us, not just those that live in or around the metro areas. Our founder Jonathan Harlan instilled in us a commitment to the communities we live in and the people we serve to always have our customers and community our top priority. This is why he believed Southwest Tennessee Electric would be a perfect partner because we share cultures and beliefs. All of us here at Aeneas are excited to partner with Southwest Tennessee Electric to continue with Mr. Harlan's legacy and help bring this much-needed service to even more people in the communities we serve!”

If you have any questions or would like more information about this project, you can visit http://aeneas.com/stemc and take a look at the press release published in December as well as see their Questions and Answers section. Gordon closed by saying “We hope the community is as excited about the project as we are. At the end of the day, we are doing this for the members we serve. Their support is crucial to its success. The goal for our project with Aeneas is Empowering Communities and Connecting Lives—help us reach that goal.”