Fiber and Community Service Along the Chesapeake Bay

By Doug Mohney, Fiber Forward magazine

Along the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Choptank Electric Cooperative has been in business for 86 years, but is a relative newcomer to fiber, forming its fiber subsidiary in 2020 and connecting the first customers in 2021. With various state and federal grant monies fueling buildouts, Choptank Fiber has quickly passed 11,000 households and signed up over 4,000 broadband customers in two years, working to meet the needs of its 56,000 members who have no other way to access high-speed broadband. 

“The need for fast, reliable internet was undeniable among our membership,” stated Tim McGaha, Vice President of Technical Services, Choptank Electric Cooperative. “Choptank Electric had hundreds of miles of fiber that it already deployed to connect substations, downline equipment and grid operations. The membership saw it and said, ‘We know you’ve been running all this fiber for the last decade. Isn’t there some way you can make residential broadband work?’ The pressure got to be substantial.”

A changeover in management in 2019 led the incoming executive team to evaluate its options and the needs of the communities in Choptank’s service footprint. The vast majority of members are residential. The cooperative’s biggest business customers are a Solo® Cup factory, a Walmart store, and SunMed Growers cannabis company. 

“It’s a really heavy lift to build out an entire broadband company and all the residential infrastructure needed,” said McGaha. “But when you see the folks that are just starving for internet, and you know you’ve got these existing fiber assets that can be utilized to help, you have to make the effort. The fiber is a valuable asset, and it gave us a head start. It’s one of the reasons we were able to get as far as we have so quickly in just a few years.”

Incoming Choptank President & CEO Mike Malandro got approval from the Board to move forward, despite the challenges of deploying residential fiber in rural areas that had anywhere between six to eight houses per mile. To leverage its electrical assets to deploy fiber, Choptank Electric had to get the Maryland General Assembly to change its status from being a publicly regulated utility accountable to the state Public Service Commission to a member-regulated one.

“We became deregulated in March 2020 and then we had to have a vote of our membership,” said Valerie Connelly, Choptank’s Vice President of Government Affairs and Public Relations. “I think 97% of those that cast a vote, voted to become member-regulated because they knew it was tied to getting broadband. That made it possible for us to use the trucks, the staff and the poles that were already in our electric system for this dual purpose of providing broadband.”

The critical need for broadband among its rural members has led Choptank to provide financial support to customers who may not be able to otherwise afford it through their Low-Income Access Program (LIAP). This $30 monthly discount will be provided to fiber customers who already receive energy assistance on their Choptank Electric account. “We have been trying to find ways to help make it possible for all families to take service. At the end of the day, we don’t want the reason they say ‘No’ to be that it’s not affordable for them.” 

This article and similar stories can be read on the latest edition of the Fiber Forward Magazine.