Residents from the Hunt Club Farms subdivision in unincorporated Warren Township spoke to members of the Lake County Board’s Financial and Administrative Committee hoping for help to correct long-standing issues with internet service providers.
Lake County is discussing renewal of a 10-year contract with Comcast for cable internet service in unincorporated areas. It is due to expire in October.
Board member Carissa Casbon, who represents the area, pleaded with the county at Thursday’s meeting to help the subdivision at last get high-speed internet via Comcast’s direct service lines.
Casbon said Comcast wants the subdivision to fork over $400,000 — or roughly $3,000 per household — to set up service to the neighborhood, and that other cable competitors have left the area over the last decade due to Comcast’s franchising agreement. There would still be a monthly cost to residents even after the payment.
“People shouldn’t have to pay $400,000 for the privilege of purchasing their service,” Casbon told the News-Sun. “Especially when they’ve had that exclusive agreement (with Lake County) for so long, and have effectively taken everybody else out of the market.”
Mustafa Badrudduja shared that in four or five years of living in Hunt Club Farms, the internet service options have been terrible.
“I can walk to Walmart, Sam’s Club, Gurnee Mills, and to think that I do not have the internet service I really need in this day and age is very surprising,” Badrudduja said. “How it can be makes no sense.”
Badrudduja said he has been able to make do, but that his four children have been impacted without high-speed internet, particularly during the pandemic.
“I’ve been able to work through this, but my kids are school-age and they have definitely suffered with the internet usage,” Badrudduja said.
Hunt Club Farms resident Aimee Reissenweber said her husband has had to work from home via a hot spot due to an unreliable Wi-Fi service.
“I know for a fact that the internet situation here has caused new residents to second-guess their decision to move in here,” Reissenweber said. “Most people are moving here from an area that had high-speed internet. One of my biggest fears is that this is scaring off prospective buyers.”
Casbon said the neighborhood meets Comcast’s density requirements but is just out of a one-mile range from existing hookup spots.
She said the period before reentering the agreement is, “the only leverage we have” to help out Hunt Club Farms residents. She believes Lake County should contend that Comcast is not meeting its service quality standard by not actually providing service to all of the county’s unincorporated areas.
“We’re talking about a David-and-Goliath situation here, where this company did have an exclusive agreement with us and they made money hand over fist because they had that exclusive agreement,” Casbon said.
Steve Reiss from the Lake County state’s attorney’s office said the contract is expected to net the county about $1 million per year. He said the county’s leverage is “quite low” in the situation.
“It’s not like we can go with our whole list of demands and then tell Comcast, well, we’re not going to sign this agreement,” Reiss said.
“It’s a lengthy, costly process, frankly,” he added. “And this is the most important point: The end of that process is highly unlikely to include a connection to Hunt Club Farms.”