(gentle music) - [Mike] 700,000 rural Virginians lack access to high speed internet today.

That's about a third of all of rural Virginia.

- They have HughesNet.

He has just a cell phone, and I don't know what they do for internet anymore.

Most of the people around here have just grown to live without it.

- I don't think you should have to choose rural community or internet.

I think you should be able to have both.

- Broadband's not going to guarantee economic success, but the absence of broadband is going to mean your community's going to get the short end of the stick.

- [Tish] The big carriers aren't out here in Bath County.

We not only are dealing with our mountainous terrain, but we're also dealing with a huge cost factor.

- All the co-ops know that they've got to be part of the solution.

- No one else is going to come to this area and save us.

We are the only one that can do this.

(gentle music) - [Announcer] Production funding for this program is made possible by.

(gentle music) - If you look at the 1937 timeframe, when power was not available in rural America, we are exactly at the same crossroads, but it's a different problem.

- People who usually make decisions tend to think, "Well, this is all farmland.

They don't need access to broadband internet and things of that nature."

And I think that's far from the truth.

- I didn't have any internet at home.

I came here to do anything that I did online, whatsoever.

- This past year with the schools being shut down, there's more online use.

- And with real estate, all of my programs are internet based.

It makes us seem really silly that it's like wifi is a need, fiber internet is a need, but really, in today's world, it is.

- A lot of the milling business very quickly becomes the food business.

And when you communicate with chefs now, it's really Instagram.

It's social media.

- [Crystal] It's being called the fourth utility.

- When the internet goes down, that actually is a big problem.

- And we don't even have what the old guys called knuckle busters.

You remember back in the old days, you'd have to everything is so automated now.

- I still have two students this year that do not have internet.

- It would transfer everything.

Well, it wouldn't transfer the electric.

If you all want to transfer the electric, they'd have to call in to do that.

- So the past due amount's twenty four ninety one.

And then the total- - My name's Mike Keyser, and I'm the CEO of BARC Electric Cooperative.

You get me ducking through the doorway?

(laughs) When I was a kid, I wanted to be a professional basketball player.

I wasn't fast enough and couldn't jump high enough to make the pros.

I decided to go to law school after college.

I thought I was just going to be an attorney.

I never thought I was going to be CEO anywhere.

(gentle music) We're in Millboro, Virginia.

It's the headquarters of BARC Electric Cooperative.

BARC is an acronym.

It stands for the Bath, Allegheny, Rock bridge Counties.

It's part of our service territory, but it sounds like a noise a dog makes.

So we leaned into the dog thing, created Butch, he's our superhero Husky mascot.

My dream was that one day people would see this dog and immediately just know, "Oh, that's BARC.

That's the BARC dog."

The co-op model, I think is an ideal model.

It's customer focused.

It's not for profit.

As long as it's recovering its cost, it's, it's doing its job.

- [Crystal] Who owns a cooperative is the members, which is very different from an investor owned utility.

- When you're in an IOU, you have a stockholder to worry with.

And so, that causes them to have another return that they need to deal with.

- By nature, we serve the rural areas.

If you look at a map of unserved areas, and then you look at electric co-op service territory map, you put them side-by-side and you wouldn't know which one is the unserved broadband map, and which one is the co-op service territory map.

And there's a reason for that.

(gentle music) - Cooperative concept is a noble concept.

It changes the world.

- I didn't really realize my family history with the co-op until I started here, but my great granddaddy was one of the first meter men.

Apparently he and my great-grandmother used to drive around together and check the meters.

That was date night, I guess.

- BARC was formed in '37 and started providing service in 1938.

And it was because this part of Virginia didn't have access to electricity, period.

- Farmers got together, they all pitched in five bucks and built the lines, and did what they needed to do.

- Cooperatives are a democracy.

Our philosophical basis definitely is that all people, no matter where you live, should have equal right to reliable infrastructure.

- We solved the problem at the electric co-ops to make sure everybody got the right to electricity.

- Thank you.

Bye-bye.

- As an electric company, we have communication needs out in the field, just like our customers need communications.

And our system was struggling to communicate internally.

If we're going to be doing it for ourselves and we're facing the same problems our members are, let's kill two birds with one stone and provide broadband service to our members at the same time.

(gentle music) - [Cody] Were you into technology at school?

- [Jacob] Yeah.

So I've always been kind of a computer nerd.

- Yeah.

- So what I'm going to have to do is I'll just have to pop a hole down through.

- That's fine, that's fine.

- I'm going to go underneath to check- - Okay.

- Just to make sure there's nothing I'm going to hit down there.

- Okay.

- People are usually pretty excited to see me.

Where I've been lately is like Millboro and Goshen and Deerfield, and all that's ever really been out there is DSL, and you can barely load a photo on DSL.

And especially with the whole COVID thing going on, I mean you can't expect a kid to be on a Zoom call getting five megabits a second.

He isn't going to hear anything.

I know how I would've been.

If they told me to do school from home, I wouldn't have done anything.

(gentle music) - Nowhere is it harder than it is right here to do this project.

We started broadband out here.

That's the Rockbridge area, and we're slowly branching our way west.

But I mean look at the difference in the density right of this...

This is where 65% of our customers are at, in this area here.

Only 35% here, but look how much bigger the system is when you get past the mountain range right here.

This is where the challenge is going to be.

I would love to have flat sandy area to build fibre.

- We are deep in a valley and surrounded by a lot of mountainous terrain.

We actually even have to cross through mountains just to get to consumers' homes.

- We hit a lot of rock here.

We get through it.

It just takes a little bit of time.

That's why they call it Rockbridge County.

They were not lying.

They named it well.

- BARC is a last mile fiber company.

So we're building out our whole system.

- Yeah.

It's just a directional drill, and there's actually a thing in here.

It's called a sonde, that the handheld locator sits on top of the ground and he follows me with it.

He's got a monitor on him and I've got a monitor on that little handheld thing.

- Brayden, you clear on your end?

- Yeah.

Everything's good up here.

- All right, here we go.

- [Cody] There are some places where you can't go underground.

There're some places where they gotta aerial span.

So we just work together to try to get it in however we need to.

- It's a very delicate process.

The fiber is as small as a follicle of hair, and it is wrapped in the actual casing for it to be placed out there for servicing.

- Every night I go to sleep, I'm thinking, "When's the shoe going to drop?

And when's all this going to blow up?"

(gentle music) - The thing that we came to an agreement on was that everybody needed high speed internet.

So that was the solution, so then we're working our way backwards.

- Thank you everybody for being here.

I know we haven't done one of these in a while, last time we did, and every time we've done it in the past, we get a lot out of it.

We got three of us in here who have started our build out, and we have two cooperatives in here who are just getting started.

- For us, right now we're really on the brink of really exploding to the place that Mike and Gary already are.

Look, when we all decided to do this at first, we all did it under the guise that it's about time the rural areas got the best of something, right?

And that's why we all went with fiber, but I didn't really recognize how incredibly aggressive people would be about getting it now.

And I would say to you, they're far more aggressive about the broadband side than they are the electric side.

We worked 80 years to build the reputation we have, and I don't want to lose that.

I don't want our fiber side hurting the credibility of my electric side.

(upbeat music) - It's a huge risk for the co-op.

We're starting an internet service company from scratch, and none of us have ever run an internet company.

- We're not cash rich.

We rely on grants.

We rely on loans.

- We've had an application with our regular lender, USDA, in since last year, and it hasn't been approved yet.

If we don't do something in May, in August, we'll run out of money.

It's been an issue, but now it's reaching emergency proportions.

- So here's the issue, Jim, we're going to run out of cash in August or September, one of the two, depending on how much we spend on broadband between now and then, if we don't get approval, like any minute from R.U.S.

- [Jim] Further up in (indistinct) we haven't heard either.

So Mike, talk to me about If you were to take and carve out any portion of that critical infrastructure.

- Mm-hmm.

- [Jim] What would be a total number in that regard?

- I mean ballpark, probably maybe five million.

Less than 10, for sure.

Somewhere between five and 10.

- [Jim] Okay.

We're already starting to work with you on that other loan for the broadband project, right?

We'll keep the two separate because one's electric, one's broadband.

We really like to keep that stuff separate.

What if sales are down?

Because whether it's just not as good and you find that, oh, it might not be August, maybe it's July when it really gets crunch time.

So there's a lot going on, man.

I know.

- Yeah.

Tell me about it.

- [Jim] We'll help you as best as we can.

- When we were living in South Pacific, we went to bungee jump off of the original bridge that bungee jumping was kind of invented on in New Zealand.

My whole life's been like a series of leaps of faith.

I'm going to be recommending we increase our line of credit by $6 million and that's this month.

That's just to buy us more time before we run out of cash.

We are running out of time.

- We're putting up strand and fiber for BARC Electric, and you'll be fed service.

- Oh man, that's awesome.

- If you choose to- - No, we did.

We signed up.

We have been here with no internet, we're waiting for BARC.

We knew that they're coming.

They'd gotten grants and that they're coming our way.

Right now we have to go back into town.

That's where we're headed today to go use internet.

- But this is going to be a game changer.

- It's usually a constant workout.

There's interesting challenges every day.

Sometimes there's old poles that need to be set.

Sometimes you have to be really careful pulling up strand on pole that are rotted.

I'm going to guess that's a 1978 pole.

Now that pole over there looks really new.

All set?

- Yeah, go ahead.

- We're getting it from our electric substations.

We're taking it from that point and building it out all the way to the premise.

- Okay, Devin, I'm going to hold up here.

If we can get this pole framed.

- Copy that.

- It's calling for a corner.

- It's too steep for a corner.

- It's a massive undertaking.

There's been no bigger risk at BARC, short of the original formation of the company.

The bigger risk was not doing something and having more out migration, less members, less electric service.

Eventually what happens to BARC?

- The reason why we're in Millboro right now is this was an economic trading area where the railroad came through it.

It's not unlike internet now.

If you're not on the internet railroad, you're not going to have commerce.

You're not going to have growth.

You're not going to have people.

You're going to get left behind.

- If you had a business that wanted to come in and open an office, everything's done on the internet now, you need high-speed internet.

Even a company out of D.C. could come down here where tax is cheaper to set up and run their business.

I'm on the Board of Directors of the old school here.

We're trying to get it developed for nursing homes and stuff.

Well, actually, I had the same teacher my mother had since she went to the school then I did.

The library and the office and stuff was down here.

When we started talking, people were wanting to sign up then, but we have to come up to Federal standards before we do and you talking big money.

You're not going to sell enough hamburgers and hotdogs to pay for something like that.

And most older people, that's the first thing they want, you know, internet service.

Life Alert, being able to call somebody, get on there and text if I need help.

We're 'bout 20 years behind in the County anyhow.

It's slowly coming.

- There's multiple stages of this thing.

It's like a manufacturing process.

You've got our guy out there surveying the drop.

- I've been at BARC for about seven years.

Right now we got plenty of clearance.

I'm actually a mechanical engineer, just happened to move back in the area and was lucky enough to find a job here at the local co-op.

I like being outside instead of sitting behind the desk all day, which I do plenty of that as well.

So the pole is out of plumb.

They may want to fix that prior to us attaching.

Once we get that approval, we'll have the crews come out and string up the fiber.

- So, Randy, what did you find out?

- The best route is actually to attach to Dominion's poles near the Exxon and work our way north to that location.

- Okay.

- Coming from the north side off of our electric system is not the best route.

My estimate was about 12, six to build that.

- Okay.

The meeting is a weekly meeting we have to coordinate that process.

- What's going on 59, 63?

You guys are over the splicing deadline.

You see that on there?

- [Randy] Yes, I know.

- All right.

Huffman?

- Downtown,Micro trenchers.

- And they're back when, Tom?

- They're supposed to be here by the 10th?

- So next Monday?

- [Tom] Yep.

- Have you heard anything?

- I haven't heard anything.

- Okay.

Micro trenching is a very narrow cut that they make in the pavement.

It goes down about eight to 12 inches and you put a fiber and a conduit right in, and then you seal over the top of it.

They got about 80% to 85% of the way done.

And they said they've got to leave and go to another project and they're going to come back.

I'm going to lose my mind if they don't come on Monday, I just want you to know that.

- [Tom] All of us are.

'Cause we're waiting on...

I mean that's holdin' us up.

- Yeah, I know.

They were not there on Monday, no.

- If they don't show up, I'm going to run.

- You better run.

You better start running now, because I'll track you down.

- [Tom] I know I'm gonna need a couple days' head start.

- Just remember, I didn't want them to leave.

- [Tom] We didn't want them to leave.

(gentle music) - It's really bizarre to have so much focus on broadband with politicians and government talking about how important it is, and it's not even getting done.

- The Commonwealth of Virginia spends millions and millions of dollars driving people by van, from Emporia to Richmond for doctors' visits.

And if you had broadband, if you had the ability to do Teladoc or any other kind of telemedicine, you could save a tremendous amount of money.

And you're not just saving money.

You're saving emissions, you're getting cars off the road.

So it really brings in the clean energy economy that you hear so much about.

It's one of those things that enables everything else that we want to come along with it.

- [Warner] How many of the other co-ops are as forward leaning as you guys around the state?

- Co-ops by nature, tend to be risk averse.

The boards are risk averse.

I'm lucky that I have a board that are willing to allow us to take chances.

- Nationwide, we're up to 200 co-ops are deploying broadband at this point in time.

- Do any of you feel like the local money you have that's in the second tranche has restrictions on it?

If you got language, have you got suggestions on how that ought to be structured?

Real time, I need that now?

- But the County administrators and the boards are the ones that know where the service is at and where it's not at.

These guys know because they live here, right?

The state doesn't really know, the Feds don't really know.

They should be the ones making those decisions on where the broadband money should go.

- This is one of those internal Washington battles that doesn't have Democrats or Republicans next to it.

But it's got the power of the big incumbents against the electric co-ops, the other alternative providers who are going to be really the competitors to the incumbents, who, with their maps and with their, "Oh, we're going to get to Bath County.

We're going to get the far parts of Augusta County.

You just wait a few more years and we'll get it to you."

Baloney.

I remember that in the '90s, and frankly, my company was one of the abusers, for that, it's a fairly big company, Nextel.

The incumbents are not going to give up without a fight.

- When you're talking to legislators, we're not pulling any punches.

This is really what we need and this is what's most important.

Whether it's Republican or Democrat, it really doesn't matter.

- Were you going to show me anything here?

- I was, but it's okay.

We can catch up another time.

This was a more important conversation to have.

Not every co-op has the same risk tolerance that we do.

- [Crystal] One of the major differences is in an IOU, to get one person or two people signed up, and for the amount of money that's going to be spent on infrastructure, is just not feasible.

(gentle music) - I love being out in the county.

I'm allergic to everything, but I like the peace and the quiet.

In the summer, I'll stretch the screen across and we can all chill in the pool and watch movies at night.

I saw this house and fell in love with it.

So I look up Comcast, because I knew that it was in this area, and they were like, "Yeah, absolutely.

You can get internet.

No problem."

So I bought the house, but then that turned out not to be the case.

They wanted to charge me $22,000 to run a cable from about a mile-and-a-half from here to my house.

So that pretty much meant I did not have internet, and I really underestimated how much not having internet would affect things.

I tried to get a new thermostat, well, they're all wifi powered now.

- Having this infrastructure in place will allow people to say, "I don't have to live in a large metropolitan area to have what I need, to be successful, or to live the way that I want to live."

- Being able to have the connectivity of a city, but be able to take it out here in the county is ideal.

For me, it's the best of both worlds.

- Previous to our broadband project, no one in this community had access to high speed internet at all.

Today, everybody in this little town has the same speeds you can get in downtown New York City.

- We have fiber here, internet here at the mill.

- It was really a game changer for us, for the business.

I no longer had to start to upload a photo, walk away and come back two hours later.

I could do things, multiple posts.

I could update the website.

It really just made us much more efficient and enabled us to do more promotion, so we could grow the business.

- That has a big impact on the local farming community, because then I can commit to a certain amount of product.

And so it kind of flows right into the local community.

- There's information here about streaming service and stuff like that.

And if you all ever want up your speed, all it takes is a phone call.

No one ever has come out here.

- Oh, okay, alright, perfect.

- All they have to do is call.

You're all set and ready to go.

- Alright.

- Yes ma'am - The decisions I make today, I may or may not see them live out their full life.

I think that responsibility to make sure that those facilities are there for 80 more years.

- Every concept can be moved around the world, but the concept can move and the philosophical thought can move, but that has to be implemented in that particular environment.

The world can change one step at a time.

(gentle music) - I'm just hoping to make a difference in what I can control.

There's a lot of stuff going on in the world that I have no control over at all.

All right, this is it.

Next basket wins.

What I can control is making an impact in our local area, bringing broadband to people, making solar accessible to people.

I want my kids to inherit a world that's better than the world that I did.

When I hang it up and I retire, I can say I've made a difference somewhere.

(gentle music) I've made this part of the world that I have control over, better.

- [Announcer] Production funding for this program is made possible by.

(gentle music)