Mary West-Hutchinson, a real estate broker in West Point, California, was tired of commuting. She’d leave the tall rural pines of her home community and drive 80 minutes to the more densely populated Lodi for work. In addition, she was taking college courses, working toward her real estate license, and wishing for the day she’d call her own shots. That day came after she visited the post office in nearby West Point and learned a local real estate broker was looking for agents. Freshly licensed, Mary knew this was the place for her and she left the long commute behind.

A few years into the work, Mary bought the business. Running a business in any environment can be a challenge, but Mary has a critical piece working in her favor: high-speed internet.

“At one point, we had four people in this office, all of us running our computers at the same time, without any hiccups,” Mary says. “Along with our fax machine, and everything else, it's just, it's really, really good internet.”

When walking the streets of West Point, it’s hard to imagine there is ease involved in accessing any ultra-modern infrastructure. The main street is quiet with serene foothill scenery and wildlife. However, there are plenty of small businesses and community services that depend on the internet to stay connected.

Volcano Communications Group is a rural internet service provider headquartered in Pine Grove, California, and offers telephone, cable television, and internet to people in California’s Sierra Nevada area communities. Recently, the company secured USDA Rural Development ReConnect Program funding to build out fiber infrastructure, meaning people like Mary benefit from the bolstered bandwidth and high speeds necessary to keep their work going, no matter where they are.

“My work comes with me everywhere I go, I’m a business owner,” Mary says. “People need to be able to access (the internet) when they need it. You shouldn’t have to live in the city to have that.”

Ryan Tanney, the worship pastor of The Call Church in Pine Grove, just 12 miles away from West Point, couldn’t agree more. The Call Church started streaming its Sunday worship services to see its congregation through the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We invested into our teams here, and our equipment, and internet,” says Tanney.

With the right setup, the church continued offering a streamed and recorded service past the time of pandemic restrictions. The congregation grew. Tanney says the church has a special position in the community. In addition to offering worship services, The Call Church also provides youth programs, support for parents, and partners with local non-profits to serve the area’s rural population – young and old – in many ways. The church maintains its communications through group events, but more continually through social media channels, online broadcast, and its mobile app. All of this requires a steady, high-capacity internet connection.

“Having access to high-speed internet is critical for us,” Tanney says. “If we didn’t have that, we would not be able to reach the people that we want to, and we wouldn’t be able to reach those who might need it the most.”

“We all live in a day and age where tech can either offer good or bad things to the world. We’re using this for good, and to bring a positive message to people in the world…whatever we can do to get that out as best we can is a victory.” – Ryan Tanney

Volcano Communications Group has been locally owned since the 1950s and started out providing telephone services with traditional wireline technology. As technology has advanced, so too has the company, but its expansion into fiber is a move that’s been expedited through partnering with USDA Rural Development’s ReConnect Program. In 2022 they received a $28.3 million loan to deploy a fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) network throughout a four-county area.

“I would say there is no logical business sense without that money to deploy fiber optic technology in a rural environment,” says Frank Leschinsky, Public Sector Manager of Volcano Communications. Leschinsky also says the company takes pride in its ability to respond to customer needs, in fact this is how the company began. No large providers could justify extending into remote areas with high elevation and prone to extreme weather. Yet Volcano’s rural service area shares commonalities with more easily-reached communities.

“We have the same needs,” Leschinsky says. “We have the same importance of having telemedicine, distance learning, work from home…everything that fiber brings to the table is in high demand, very high demand. It’s excellent to have that in our area for economic development purposes.”

With loan and grant funding, the ReConnect Program helps recipient organizations deliver access to high-speed internet to the most remote and difficult to serve rural communities in America. This program is critical for driving long-term economic growth in these areas and connects people to more job, education, and health care opportunities. The ReConnect Program closed its fifth round of funding in early 2024.

“Having USDA involved in projects like this, we are able to expedite the deployment of fiber, we're able to push into areas where normally we would not be able to bring that fiber connectivity, and thereby enable those homes and businesses to thrive in a digital future,” says Leschinsky.

In California’s Calaveras County, the ReConnect Program is prevalent throughout the county’s 2023 broadband planning and feasibility study report as an opportunity the county can lean in to. The report notes 31 percent of the county’s households are classified as either unserved or underserved for high-speed internet. With a population that is primarily rural, and its economy heavily dependent on tourism, Calaveras County needs high-speed internet for many reasons; all of them important.

In recent years, the Sierra Nevada and Central Valley regions have seen a high number of natural disaster events including repeat wildfires and flash flooding. Notably, all of the fiber build-out Volcano Communications is doing using ReConnect dollars is physically underground. “This type of construction is considerably more time consuming and expensive but given the fire-prone nature of our area, it is a superior method over aerial,” Leschinsky says. Recent fires have tested, and proven, that investing in buried, protected lines, is the best way for Volcano Communications to provide security for their service and customers.

Teresa Hitchcock, CEO for Calaveras County, acknowledges the complexities. “Building fiber networks in rural areas is challenging,” she says, “We have a lot of area spread out throughout the county where we do not have access to any fiber. It’s critical to support our business community, it’s critical in a natural disaster. If we don’t have a fiber network in a natural disaster, we don’t have the opportunity for folks to even get in touch with some of the emergency services that they might need.”

With fiber expansion fostered by Volcano Communications, communities in the county, including West Point, enjoy access to this vital utility.

Hitchcock goes on to say, “Partnering with the state and federal government in order to build those (fiber) networks out is critical to rural counties; we can’t do it by ourselves.”

To learn more about the ReConnect Loan and Grant Program, please visit www.usda.gov/reconnect.