Push is on to bring broadband connectivity to all in Sussex, Warren counties

https://www.njherald.com/story/news/2022/05/06/broadband-connection-suss...

FREDON — After two years of remote work and school due to the pandemic, almost half of Sussex and Warren counties' households still don't have access to broadband service.

Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-Sussex, is urging state, county and local officials to use their federal grant money to remedy the situation. 

Fredon has accepted the congressman's advice and said it will use its entire $336,000 federal check toward the estimated $2 million project. Newton-based Planet Networks is funding the rest of the cost to wire the entire town with high-capacity optic fiber cable.

"We had already given them permission to come down Route 94 and on 519," said Mayor John Flora. That permission was to run fiber optic into bordering Warren County municipalities including Blairstown, Knowlton and Frelinghuysen.

"Now, we're working with them to get cable down every road in our town," he said, including one section of town around Hunts Pond that had no cable access at all.

Flora said the decision to help fund the town-wide wiring began with talk over getting cable to Hunts Pond. "It was pretty simple. We have no city sewer, no city water to use the money. But we could use it for broadband."