By John Raffel
Correspondent
The connection of the first customer of 123Net under the Allegan County broadband expansion program began earlier this month. Coralee and Lynn Zandbergen were one of more than 11,000 county residences to gain access to high speed internet through the $65 million program.
The funds come from three sources: the county’s allocation from the federal American Rescue Plan funds, ROBIN funding from the State of Michigan, using federal funds, and 123 Net funding.
The Zandenbergens were the first ROBIN funded connection in both Allegan and Michigan. Over the next 18-24 months 123 Net will lay 1000 miles of fiber optic cable throughout the county.
“The program will enable the underserved and unserved county residents to be connected in real time to global currents,” commissio chair Jim Storey said. “Coralee Zandbergen said she was
delighted with the connection speed, a major improvement, in her view, over the troublesome satellite connection she used previously. It required frequent snow removal from the service dish in wintertime.
“She said it would take up to 10 minutes for the satellite to connect. At a news conference last week, I pointed out that without the constant encouragement of township supervisors Jim Pitsch, Mike
VanDenBerg, and Russ Van Dam, Salem, Gun Plain, and Overisel, respectively, and the Commissioners’ courageous 4-3 vote in 2021 to preserve the ARPA funds for broadband expansion over other demands, Coralee might still be in a 10-minute wait each time she wanted to connect.”