RODANTHE, N.C. — In recent years, a frustrating reality of living on Hatteras Island is that communications can go out at any point in time.
It’s not just vital 911 communications but it extends to businesses too, who’s systems go down. After the most recent outage last week, Dare County county is encouraging the public to help push for change.
“It's literally every week or every other week there's a major outage. It's got to stop," said Trip Forman, co-founder of REAL Watersports in Rodanthe.
It’s no secret that phone and internet service is something we all rely on every day. In Hatteras, connectivity is an issue that seems to happen more and more often over the past few years. Impacting both 911 operations and businesses.
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“Nobody seems to understand the magnitude of what's being lost," said Forman.
The issue of connectivity to Hatteras was reignited last week when an outage spread to the island and impacted 911 services. Something Dare County leaders say should never happen.
“When they're faced with their most challenging life moment they make a decision, they got to call 911, and they may not get through," said Drew Pearson, director of Dare County Emergency Management.
“The loss of 911 call capabilities is unacceptable, and we want the public to know that we are actively pushing those that own the communications infrastructure to fix the problem," said Bob Woodard, chairman of the Dare County Board of Commissioners.
Years ago, Dare County Emergency Management secured a grant for mobile cell towers to help in emergency situations when outages occur. Placed at emergency operations locations on the island and allowing for 911 emergency calls to come through.
“We had something that we could do without having to rely on, whether Brightspeed or all the wireless companies that have coverage down there," said Pearson.
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At the heart of the issue is a single fiber optic cable, owned by Brightspeed, is relied upon by all internet and wireless carriers to Hatteras. So, when there are issues that arise with that single cable, it impacts the entire island. Brightspeed says a microwave system was re-established in the area that helps in outages for landline emergency services, but not for wireless or internet.
“Not only is it 911, they can't get to businesses or their point of sale systems don't work, nothing works. It shouldn't be that way," said Pearson.
Brightspeed shares they do understand the resident frustrations about connectivity and tell me they are working to find solutions. A redundant fiber path is what they say is critical to solving this. “We believe redundancy is critical to addressing this vulnerability and are working to make that possible."
"We understand the frustration of Dare County residents, and we share their concern about the impact of service disruptions. Our top priority is delivering reliable communications services to the communities we serve, and we recognize that redundancy is essential to long-term reliability," said a Brightspeed spokesperson.
But at this time, say they need help to be able to afford this type of technology.
"We have been working for more than two years to fund and deploy fiber networks in the area. In fact, we applied for a federal middle mile grant that would help fund, together with an investment from Brightspeed, the submarine fiber broadband line. Unfortunately, we did not receive the grant. However, we have been working with North Carolina state legislators to include supplemental funding for this submarine fiber line in the state’s budget. While legislators did not pass a revised 2024 budget including this funding, we are working with legislators to include this in the 2025 budget," said a Brightspeed spokesperson.
For Dare County and Hatteras residents the hope is that sooner rather than later, something can change.
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“The frustration is just ongoing and really manifests itself when it's something that you just can't fix on your own. If we could fix it on our own, we would have. But it doesn't belong to us," said Pearson.
Dare County is encouraging residents to reach out to their internet and wireless service providers to help push for change.
“If you live on Hatteras Island, own a business here or visit the Outer Banks, we urge you to contact your internet and wireless providers—especially Brightspeed—and demand better service, redundancy and emergency protections. Dare County remains committed to finding solutions to this ongoing issue and keeping the community informed on the progress being made every step of the way.” said Woodard.
For more information on what Dare County is doing to address this issue, you can find their press release here.
