BROTHERSVALLEY TOWNSHIP, Pa. — It took a golf cart ride to the end of his driveway and a 15-minute explanation for Mark Knepper, owner of Kneppco Equipment in Somerset County, to explain to a 6 News reporter how he gets his internet.
Instead of a fiber optic cable, Knepper gets sub-broadband internet from a blue and white transceiver perched in an evergreen tree near the road that receives an internet signal from a tower somewhere off in the distance.
Ironically enough, there's a fiber optic line right next to the transceiver, but it doesn't hook up to Knepper's house; instead, it runs to the 911 center in town.
The Berlin-area location of Kneppco Equipment has been open since 2002, and Knepper has been hoping they'll get high-speed internet since then.
"The technology helps us move a lot more product," he said.
But their internet connection is iffy, at best. The Knepper family knows that if their internet speed suddenly drops, it could be one of a few things: maybe a truck is parked outside, or perhaps there's too much snow on the ground, or it could just be 2:30 p.m.
(The internet connection usually slows down around 2:30 because all the area kids are coming home from school.)
The Kneppers aren't the only ones. In fact, Somerset County has the highest percentage of homes and businesses without broadband internet in the area, with only 83% having access to internet with at least a 25 mbps download speed.
Somerset County Commissioner John Vatavuk said in an interview with 6 News that that means businesses here are at a disadvantage.
"That's the problem we're running into now," Vatavuk said. "We can't have high enough speed internet to compete in the world market."
The commissioner knows what it's like to have internet that's too slow.
"We had dial-up (at home) and it was awful," he said.
"Up until what year did you have dial-up?" a 6 News reporter asked.
"Uh... last year," he said, shaking his head. "Last year!"
The county is working on a number of grants to bring faster internet to the area, including one they're hoping will help get high-speed internet to local business parks.
Gov. Tom Wolf, also, recently announced as much as $35 million in incentives to bring high-speed internet to the 800,000 Pennsylvanians who don't have it, and the FCC's Connect America Fund has the same goal.
For Knepper, those efforts are good steps. He's just hoping they can get it done sooner rather than later, although he doesn't have any plans to move his business somewhere else.
"We've been here awhile," he said. "We'll suffer through."
ncG1vNJzZmivmpawtcKNnKamZ56axLR7y6iamqRfqLyusdGsnK1lopa7rL%2BMmqSoppdixLC%2B0q1kn6eiYq%2Bzu8CdmZqmlGKut63IpZiboZyewbp5x66praGenHqtu8Kao2aapai2r7HSrJysZWBoenR8jGtnanA%3D