ALBANY – The Governor’s Office announced Wednesday that five Southwest Georgia counties had been approved for state funding to install wireless Internet service throughout the counties. The approval – part of the BRIDGE project, or Broadband Rural Initiative to Develop Georgia’s Economy – will provide $2.7 million to help fund the $3.77 million project. Another $1 million will be provided in federal funding, and the participating counties will provide the rest, OneGeorgia Executive Director Nancy Cobb said Wednesday.

The funding was approved through the OneGeorgia initiative, which focuses on rural development in the state. The counties receiving the funding are Baker, Calhoun, Early, Miller and Mitchell counties.

Lee Conner, chairman of the South Georgia Regional Information Technology Authority, which is the governing agency for the project, said the wireless signal will be accessible by all of the counties’ residents for a subscription fee.

Conner said the project should move pretty quickly, and officials hoped to have it completed within two years, the general timeline for OneGeorgia projects. The first step is to create a request for proposal, followed by bidding the project out.

“We hope within the next 60 days to have that accomplished and be ready to go to bid,” Conner said.

Business owners in Arlington all told downtown development officials that they needed broadband access to thrive, said Conner, who also serves in several capacities in the city. After asking other counties if they had an interest in undertaking a venture to provide wireless Internet service, Conner said the response was very strong.

“We actually had to stop and say ‘All right, five counties! We’ve got to stop somewhere,’ ” he said.

Both Conner and Cobb said the project was imperative to the development of rural Georgia, and likened it to the development of electricity in homes and businesses in the beginning of the 20th century.

Wireless access would allow farmers in the five counties to reposition water sprinklers and other farm equipment over the Internet, Cobb said.

“It’s critical. It’s just as important today as electricity was in the 1930s,” she said. “High-speed broadband is no longer an option, it’s one of those required infrastructure needs.”

“When a prospect looks at a community, just like they are looking for water, electricity and sometimes railroad, if they can’t communicate quickly and efficiently with someone in an office halfway around the world, they’re going to find somewhere they can.”

Bailey White, a consultant with Civitium consulting agency, said the process will be achieved in two phases: the installation of antennas that will allow broadcasting of the wireless signal, and the actual broadcast of the signal.

Cobb said the OneGeorgia authority will keep an eye on the project as it progresses.