“So everybody is working, jumping in to make sure that this project stays afloat,” said King. “And I have all the confidence in the world, based upon what they asked for and has been provided to them that it will work.”

McCall said the reason the project is behind is because there are a lot of challenges with an ambitious project covering eight counties and 37 municipalities.

He said there were problems with an environmental report that threw the project behind. And he said there were problems getting permits.

“We have out of state companies that’s doing this work, and unfortunately they are not quite as familiar with doing business in Alabama,” McCall said. “They had hiccups and some stumbles along the way and were not able to get the proper permitting and those kinds of things that needed to have been done before the construction began and continued.”

McCall said A2D, the company responsible for the engineering and construction, is receptive to input from the SCABC and he is “cautiously comfortable” the project can come in on time.

Lowndes County is in phase one of the broadband project along with Dallas County, McCall said.

He said the project would provide cities, towns and counties high speed Internet; businesses will have the ability to conduct businesses globally; and schools will be able to offer online courses.

While McCall said there is the state run distant learning program, the problem is after students leave school they don’t have access to computers in their homes. He said last mile of the broadband project would allow students to access computers in their homes.