Crook County seeking faster internet in rural areas

People living in rural parts of Crook County could be getting faster internet with their TV antenna, if a letter county commissioners sent recently to Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., bears fruit.

Commissioner Jerry Brummer told NewsChannel 21 Thursday it’s just the beginning of getting the ball rolling on providing better internet service to rural parts of the community.

Officials are looking at using TV “white space spectrum,” which is the unused broadcasting frequencies in the wireless spectrum.

The letter states the county wants to improve their internet infrastructure, which will benefit many organizations and businesses.

“It can all be done by an antenna. So that way, the people don’t have to run a lot of cable, and it will be a lot cheaper in the end if we can get this done,” Brummer said. “So a lot of benefits to emergency personnel out there, and it will just benefit everybody.”

County resident Star Garland said she’s happy that county officials are looking for ways to improve high-speed internet in rural areas.

“We recently switched from a very large company to a small local one,” Garland said. “It’s better, but it’s still slow.”

According to county officials, the broadband internet served by white space spectrum could reach 80 percent of the rural population who lack high-speed internet access.