Wayne County -
As a step in the ongoing quest for rural broadband integration, the Wayne County Board of Commissioners is encouraging all residents and business owners to take the #BroadbandTest.
“We are asking Wayne County residents to help with the mapping of broadband service in Wayne County by going to BroadbandTest.us and performing a speed test,” explained Troy Bystrom of the Wayne Economic Development Corporation (WEDCO) and the Wayne County Technology Committee.
The committee was formed in 2012 to study how technology impacts job creation, business attraction and quality of life in Wayne County.
Members include the Wayne County Commissioners, the County IT Director, school district representatives, and technology, business, economic development, and workforce professionals.
Seated before the Board of Commissioners Thursday morning, Bystrom explained the Broadband Test is relatively simple, taking little more than 30 seconds.
“It measures your upload speed and your download speed and it sends that information to the Center for Rural Pennsylvania,” he explained.
Funded through $50,000 invested by the Center for Rural Pennsylvania, the Broadband Test is part of a Penn State research project led by Sascha Meinrath, the Palmer Chair in Telecommunications in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications.
Utilizing Meinrath's Measurement Lab, the Broadband Test allows residents across Pennsylvania to record their internet speeds so researchers can compile a coverage map.
“It's really important for us to do this,” said Commissioner Joseph Adams, “especially anywhere north of Honesdale. We need as many people to do this as possible because we know that ... is a very, very underserved market.”
According to a press release, 48 of Pennsylvania's 67 counties are classed as rural, lacking the infrastructure to carry broadband internet where it needs to go.
Additionally, of the 800,000 people without high speed internet - federally defined as download speeds of 25 megabits/second and upload speeds of three megabits/second - two-thirds live in rural areas.
“Even if people are not heavy broadband users, broadband affects daily life,” said Bystrom, noting that internet speed, or lack thereof, can affect things such as the ability to provide healthcare services, the costs of general goods and services, access to education and business operations.
A press release states the county's Wayne Tomorrow! initiative likewise found through its Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats (SWOT) assessments of economic development that “broadband internet service among the top priorities in every area from Agriculture to Workforce Development to Quality of Life.”
Alluding to observations made through the wayne County Technology Committee, Bystrom noted to achieve high internet speeds, “Wayne County has two major challenges.”
The first he explained is accessibility.
Bystrom said, where there is internet, “Usually the speeds are not ... good enough to be able to do the everyday tasks that businesses and residents need to do in the county.”
He continued, “The other issue we found is that, within Wayne County, our residents and businesses typically or generally pay up to three times more for internet service and broadband than residents and businesses in ... the counties next to us.”
Bystrom and Commissioner Adams explained this increased cost is attributed to a combination of the lack of infrastructure in place and the lower customer density in the area.
“We need the broadband to draw the businesses and people here, and we need business and people here to attract broadband.”
In search of a means to remedy this across the state, Governor Tom Wolf unveiled the Pennsylvania Broadband Initiative earlier this year.
This program encourages high-speed internet providers to build in rural markets with $35 million in financial incentives.
Likewise, the House Republican Policy Committee and the Center for Rural Pennsylvania held hearings on the matter, one of which Commissioner Adams attended on behalf of the county.
http://www.wayneindependent.com/news/20180720/broadband-study-in-wayne-county
