Background

Lycoming County secured funding through ARC POWER to prepare the Lycoming County Broadband Engineering & Deployment Readiness Plan (Plan) to identify where infrastructure is needed to serve unserved and unserved structures, thereby improving broadband connectivity for residences, businesses, and institutions. In addition, the Plan will identify broadband fiber deployment solutions to fill the gaps, locate areas best-suited for middle-mile and last-mile broadband infrastructure deployment, estimate the cost of required middle-mile and last-mile infrastructure, estimate the timeline for broadband infrastructure build-out, and develop an action and implementation strategy. With the Plan completed, Lycoming County can more efficiently and effectively work with local ISPs to pursue forthcoming federal funding for broadband deployment activities.

Lycoming County executed a contract between Lycoming County and ECC Technologies. A project kick-off meeting was held on February 10th. Project focus is to grow knowledge base in broadband infrastructure, survey existing broadband projects, understand needs and solutions. Discuss need to access full comprehensive data set through Lycoming County GIS data. Authorization process for ECC to obtain data for survey and mapping towards project objectives. Review ECC data collection and public survey formation process. BAAT (Broadband Availability Tool) survey was conducted for over 3-month period through online tools and paper survey. The contractor completed the report in September 2025.

Project Start Date & End Date

10/01/2023 - 01/01/2026

• Lycoming County Broadband Availability and Adoption Toolset (BAAT) Report

Program Continuation and Sustainability

While Lycoming County does not directly install broadband infrastructure, the sustainability of this initiative is secured through its role as a strategic facilitator for private-sector expansion. By identifying unserved and underserved households, the County provides the essential data required to direct private Internet Service Providers (ISPs) toward high-priority gaps. This comprehensive planning effort empowers ISPs to build more compelling cases for independent grant funding and capital investment. Ultimately, the program ensures long-term viability by inducing market competition and providing a technical roadmap that will accelerate service expansion.