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AT&T launches fiber broadband in unincorporated Vanderburgh County

AT&T is delivering reliable, high-speed broadband to farmers and rural residents in unincorporated Vanderburgh County, Indiana.

Jeff Luong, president of broadband access and adoption initiatives, says AT&T is pleased to deliver robust internet to the previously underserved area.

“(Vanderburgh County) wanted a company that was able to provide them with comprehensive solutions and was able to offer them a technology and product that not only satisfies their needs of today, but also satisfies their needs for years if not decades to come,” he says. “We participated in a Request for Proposals (RFP) that was issued by the county and were selected as the winner of the RFP because of our financial terms we provided and because of our capability as the country’s largest builder of fiber. We have extensive experience for building and operating networks including our state-of-the-art fiber network. We have resources already in place in and around Vanderburgh County and because of those capabilities, we were able to hit the ground running. A couple thousand locations have already been completed and our plan is to compete 20,000 locations, which will cover all of the unincorporated portion of Vanderburgh County with fiber. Our target is to have that done by the end of next year and we feel pretty confident based on the progress that we have so far and based on the fact that we are currently ahead of the schedule in terms of our work that we will meet or exceed that commitment that we made with the county.”

Audio: Jeff Luong

In November 2021, AT&T and Vanderburgh County signed a $39 million contract to build a fiber network to deliver internet to the unincorporated parts of the county within two years. The network is now operational, allowing AT&T to connect the first fiber locations.

Vanderburgh County Farmer Joe Steinkamp says reliable, high-speed broadband  is critical to farming.  

“The agriculture industry is all about precision ag nowadays. We’re farming by the foot and we’re fertilizing and seeding by soil types and grids, so when we send our yield monitor information to the agronomists to help us analyze what we’ve done, we transfer that data while we’re sleeping because it might take all night. Now, if we have high-speed internet, we’ll drop it into the cloud and they’ll have it immediately; real time data to make real-time decisions.

AT&T hosted a “Flip the Switch” event earlier this month in the southern county.

Steinkamp was there.

“The president of AT&T Indiana came to Vanderburgh County to announce the public-private partnership for having high-speed internet in the county. AT&T says it’s going to bring reliable broadband to the last house in Vanderburgh County and I live next door to the last house, so I hope it makes it to my house. I highly thank the people in government in our county that are working on this deal for the benefit of the whole county and not just the city,” he says.

Audio: Joe Steinkamp

In addition to celebrating connecting more farmers, there was a demonstration of the SoilTech Sensor. The SoilTech technology use AT&T Internet of Things (IoT) to help farmers reach sustainability goals.

Ehsan Soltan is the founder of SoilTech Wireless, a company with the mission of helping farmers improve crop production with real-time insights.  

“AT&T is aiming to close the digital divide in rural America and is trying to get connectivity where it’s needed most—to the farmer and to the last mile,” he says.
“We fit into the story because we deliver sensors and platforms to help the farmer make decisions and our whole technology platform relies on rural connectivity. So, the more places that connectivity exists in farmland, the more we can help farmers.”

Audio: Ehsan Soltan

Vanderburgh County officials used federal funds made available by the American Rescue Plan of 2020. Vanderburgh County contributed $9.9 million in public funds to the project and AT&T covered the remaining $29.7 million.  

The project will be completed by November 2023.  

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