Bug Tussel aims to finish Oconto County projects in 2023

Rural internet provider Bug Tussel hopes to install 119 miles of “middle-line fiber” by the end of 2023, the company’s chief operating officer told the Oconto County Board of Supervisors on Sept. 22.

Jason Wied spent several years as corporate counsel for the Green Bay Packers and left the NFL team in 2011 to go into private practice. He said he thought he’d never work for a company again until he met Steve Schneider, Bug Tussel’s president and CEO.

“I really believed in the mission — How do we level the playing field for rural Wisconsin?” Wied said. “The best way to try to ensure strong communities is to make sure we don’t have a digital divide between what they have available in rural areas versus what they have in cities. There’s no reason that people can’t move back into a small town, maybe the town they were born in, and work wherever they want in the world, and you have to have the technology to be able to do that.”

The Oconto County project has two phases, the first of which is to build 37 miles of fiber optic cable to support the 911 system, Wied said. The company’s goal is to complete that phase this year and will work through the winter, he said.

The second phase is the middle-line fiber, which Wied likened to a communications “interstate highway,” with homes and other customers branching off that line.

Bug Tussel has two goals in improving internet access to a county, he said.

“First we want to make sure that there’s ubiquitous cellular coverage throughout the county … so we look for holes in the coverage, we build towers,” Wied said. “Secondly, if there’s area where fiber is not feasible at this time, we want to make sure that there’s fixed wireless coverage available with a minimum of 25-meg (megabytes) speed.”

The ultimate goal is to serve everyone with fiber optic cable, he said. To that end, Bug Tussel’s middle-mile fiber is open to anyone who wants to use it.

“Our middle mile, we publish it, we want everybody to know where it is, we want our competitors to know where it is,” Wied said. “If a competitor says, ‘Hey, we’re in a small community we want to serve with fiber, can we link off your middle mile?’ We say, ‘Absolutely.’”

The company also offers Bug Tussel University, a free program providing about 20 courses with titles like Email Basics, Facebook for Beginners, Fun with Photos, and Online Shopping.

“It’s one thing to bring technology to a community but the technology is useless if people don’t know how to use it,” Wied said. The company works with local libraries and other community organizations to help educate people in internet basics.

Oconto County approved an intergovernmental agreement and tax revenue bond financing for Bug Tussel in July. The county gets a portion of the infrastructure for its own uses, including emergency communications, in exchange for guaranteeing the county’s portion of the bonds, estimated at $16.5 million.