Rural Broadband Pilot Project Begins In Clinton County

An Internet technology experiment has started in Clinton county that is intended to help reduce the cost and expand providing broadband service to rural areas of the state.

A pilot project named OVERCOME has started in Clinton County and includes a partnership among Missouri S&T, Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, United Electric subsidiary United Fiber, and the University of Missouri Extension. The project is being funded through a grant from US Ignite and the National Science Foundation. The project will include the deployment of a wireless network that will simulate a high-bandwidth device with multiple low-bandwidth radio frequency devices for areas that lack a fiber broadband infrastructure.

The project also has a one-year goal to design the network, engage residents and survey residents before and after the project become active to track the community’s interest and success with the project in place.

In addition to the broadband experiment itself, The Clinton County Initiative is calling all residents to help the team map the coverage in the county as well as think about what other challenges could be solved by working together. They invite anyone living and/or working in the county to check out their web pages and take a quick survey at this link or this link. Links to those surveys can be found with this story on northwestmoinfo.com. Updated information on Turney’s Project OVERCOME can be found here.

The formal launch of the project was held last Thursday in Turney.