FAYETTE COUNTY, Ohio — Right now, Spectrum is investing $9 billion nationwide to connect people from rural areas to the internet.

One of those rural areas is celebrating today that more than 200 homes and businesses can now get high-speed internet, and officials say it’s a game changer for this community.

Tony Anderson, one of Fayette County commissioners, said he used to not even be able to email.

“Email wasn’t even there for regular folks,” Anderson said. “I was in China or Vietnam or South Korea and really the only way to get back to contact folks at home was, phone. So that was not always easy on the timeframes that we had because you’re 18 hours away in China, you’re six hours in advance in Europe.”

Now he said, rather than waking people up to talk to them, they can send that email from the phone to anywhere else in the world.

The broadband expansion is going to help families with children who need to participate in virtual classrooms, and it’s going to help both homeowners and business owners in the area.

The expansion is especially important for southern Fayette because it’s on the edge of the Appalachian region, Anderson said, where hills and trees make the line of sight challenging, and now they’ll also be able to connect to the internet.

“So the connectivity is vital,” Anderson said. “Vital for us to be able to manage communications and that means opportunities for financial operations to grow and improve in small rural areas. It’s just a great opportunity.”

Spectrum is working on several other projects across Ohio to bring high-speed internet to more rural areas.

Spectrum’s multi-year rural constructive initiative will ultimately connect about 1.75 million homes and businesses across the country.

“I’ve got grandchildren from the age of 17 to 8, and I expect the experience and growth that is coming from these types and abilities of communications is only going to improve,” Anderson said. “So I’m excited to see what the future is for them.”

Spectrum is the parent company of Spectrum News.