THOMASVILLE — Georgia Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle met Tuesday with local officials to discuss internet needs in rural areas — a dilemma that grows daily as society depends more and more on internet-transmitted data.

Cagle, who met with officials at Thomasville Regional Airport, said capital costs versus service areas determine the success of a system that takes internet service to outlying areas.

Thomasville City Council member Max Beverly told Cagle it was realized two decades ago that the city would be left behind if it did not address the need for data transmission. A “massive investment” was made to create internet service, he added.

“The main purpose is — forget the profits — without it we would be dead,” Beverly said, adding that data use today is going “up and up and up.”

People purchasing houses in the community ask about available data transmission services.

“It’s a lifestyle thing that is going to get more and more pronounced,” the council member told the group.

Many Thomas County areas do not have broadband service, but city fiber optics lines are nearby. 

“Our fiber may be the only fiber that runs to some of the small cities,” Beverly said.

City official Chris White told the group some areas would require an enormous amount of subsidies to reach.

“If the city had not made that investment, we couldn’t be here,” White said, pointing out crucial data-transmission services used by banks and Archbold Memorial Hospital.

Lynn Williams, assistant city manager, interjected, “We created a market and held classes to teach people how to use it.”

Today, Beverly said, more people subscribe to city internet services than to city cable television.

Ken Hickey, Thomas County Commission chairman, said half of county roads do not have internet.

“The success story is we’re doing it in government,” said Don Atkinson, a member of the Georgia Public Web Board of Directors and a retired assistant city manager.

District 11 state Sen. Dean Burke, (R-Bainbridge), asked about the cost of city internet reaching out to rural areas.

“I feel this community has thrived because of diversity,” said Shelley Zorn, Payroll Development Authority executive director. Zorn pointed out the hospital and corporate offices in the community.

Said District 173 state Rep. Darlene Taylor, (R-Thomasville), “Rural communities are suffering. They do not have the money to do it. They need assistance.”

Public/private partnerships are an option, White said.

“You guys are way ahead of the curve,” the lieutenant governor told local officials.

Cagle has filed initial paperwork to run for the governor’s seat in 2018.