Broadband service expanded to dozens of households, businesses in Worcester County
WORCESTER COUNTY, Md. – In Worcester County, more residents and businesses are getting an exciting new opportunity.
On Tuesday, local leaders and Choptank Fiber celebrated hooking up 35 homes to broadband service.
“This is thrilling,” said Worcester County Commissioner Joshua Nordstrom. “We’ve been working on this as one of our top priorities for a few years now. There’s so much involved with finding the right organizations and having them interested.”
Nordstrom says businesses and residents are finally getting caught up to speed on what has become an everyday necessity.
“It is really something that is absolutely necessary to anybody who is conducting any sort of business. It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in. You need high-speed internet. You need the ability to make a cell phone call,” he said.
Choptank Electric Cooperative President and CEO Mike Malandro says this is only the beginning. It’ll be about seven to ten years before the entire eastern shore can get in on Choptank Fiber’s broadband service.
“We’re breaking ground on seven of the nine counties on the shore right now. Pretty soon, it will be all nine counties,” said Malandro. “It’s a combination of overhead lines and underground lines. It’s a very intense construction project. We’ve been in the construction business for 85 years, and this is just a little bit of a different flavor than what we normally do.”
Monday, people in Pocomoke City also celebrated getting hooked up to another broadband provider, Talkie. Nordstrom says while this is a new beginning for many businesses and families, he’s also excited to see broadband services from other companies come to the area.
“Having these two companies and companies like Comcast and Verizon potentially come to the table will give us more options, and hopefully will give our residents more options so that they can choose the plan that is best for them,” he said.
Nordstrom adds that as more broadband providers come to the area, that will hopefully drive competition up, and lower prices for customers. He says that’s an essential part of giving Worcester county a better chance at economic opportunity.
“We have a great story to tell here in Worcester county. We have a great way of life, hard-working people, relatively inexpensive land. We have a lot of people working to help people open businesses and relocate to here in Worcester county,” said Nordstrom.
Choptank Fiber’s operations team installed the infrastructure needed along Whitesburg Road, Dividing Creek Road, Ferry Branch Lane, McMaster Road, and Worcester Highway. Meanwhile, their Member Services staff are working with potential customers to finalize installation plans.
Tuesday’s ribbon-cutting was an extension of work that Choptank Fiber is already doing here on the Lower Eastern Shore. In Somerset County, the company has been building out broadband infrastructure for the last three months.
