Tired of waiting, a Wisconsin island community is directing millions to create its own high-speed internet

Photo: Jason Morisseau, an installation and maintenance technician with Waitsfield and Champlain Valley Telecom, uses a fusion splicer to install fiber optic cable that is being run to a home, in Concord, Vt., in 2022.  Wilson Ring/AP Photo. Retrieved from wpr.org.

As Wisconsin lawmakers consider expanding aid for high-speed internet this year, one island community is undertaking a pricey effort to connect its residents with miles of fiber cable.

The project is expected to cost about $6 million, or the equivalent of about $8,500 for each of Washington Island’s 700 year-round residents. At the northern tip of Door County, the island is a popular tourist destination and only accessible by ferry.

In October, a Washington Island school became the first recipient of high-speed internet using the new fiber optic network. An entire classroom of students can now use internet-connected devices. Residents and businesses are next in the project’s queue.

“We are connecting people every day,” said Robert Cornell, manager of the Washington Island Electric Cooperative. “We’re going to serve every single member of the (cooperative). We’re not just passing people like most internet service providers talk about. We’re actually bringing the service to the home.”

Cornell recently appeared on Wisconsin Public Radio’s “The Morning Show” to discuss the effort. After that interview, Gov. Tony Evers announced a proposal to expand state funding for broadband expansion by $750 million. In a follow-up interview after that announcement, Cornell commended the proposal while also saying the funding wouldn’t be enough.

“There’s no two ways about it. Doing fiber to the home is absolutely a very expensive prospect,” he said. “Every single person in the state of Wisconsin should have the ability — if they want to — to connect to high-speed (internet).”