Dunn County Rural Broadband Gap Analysis Report forwarded to Dunn County Board

By LeAnn R. Ralph

MENOMONIE  —  The Dunn County Board’s Community Resources and Tourism Committee has reviewed the Rural Broadband Gap Analysis Report and has forwarded it to the county board.

Committee members reviewed the draft report December 12, and the county board is expected to take action on accepting the report at the January meeting.

James Tripp, county board supervisor from Menomonie and a member of the community resources and tourism committee, said he was “enormously impressed” with the scope and content of the report.

The analysis is based on surveys filled out by people living in the county so the areas with poor or non-existent Internet access could be identified and mapped.

The community resources and tourism committee authorized the surveys and the gap analysis report earlier this year.

Internet service providers in this area will use the report as supporting information when they submit grant applications for funds to help pay for improving Internet access in Dunn County.

The base cost of installing a fiber optic network is $20,000 per mile and increases from there.

In rural areas of the county, ISPs must weigh the cost of installing fiber optic cable against the number of potential customers to determine whether the project will be cost effective.

Dunn County officials and representatives for Dunn County Economic Development view good Internet access as essential for economic development.

The community resources committee and UW-Extension held a series of public meetings about rural broadband in Dunn County with the first meeting in Menomonie in April and two other meetings during the summer in Boyceville and in Colfax.

Download speeds

One of the handouts to people attending the community meetings was a map of Internet availability in Dunn County produced by the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin’s  Broadband Office.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) defines broadband as having a minimum download speed of 25 megabits per second and a minimum upload speed of 3 megabits per second.

Many people at the community meetings pointed out that the PSC map was unacceptably inaccurate. Areas of the map indicating 10 megabits per second download speeds, for example, with 1.5 megabits per second of upload speeds, actually had download speeds of only 250 or 500 kilobits.

For purposes of comparison to what people were reporting as opposed to what was on the PSC’s map, with dial-up Internet speeds of 56 kilobits per second, downloading a movie from the Internet would take 34 hours and 44 minutes. With DSL providing 1.5 megabits of download speed, the movie could be downloaded in one hour and 50 minutes. With a gigabit of Internet speed, a movie could be downloaded in seven seconds.

Dunn County officials learned at the community meetings some people are making decisions on where to buy a home based on the availability of good Internet access. Businesses in Dunn County also have considered moving elsewhere to get better Internet access.

Good Internet access improves the tax base, said Eric Turner, director of the Dunn County Economic Development Corporation, at the community resources and tourism committee meeting.

Landlords can increase the rent for apartments by 3 to 7 percent when fast Internet access is available, and the value of a house goes up by about $3,000 per $100,000 of property value, Turner said.

The report will include a variety of maps that are more accurate than the PSCs maps to show “with more surety” where there is and is not good Internet access, said Bob Colson, Dunn County zoning administrator and planner.

What’s next?

Adopting the final draft of the Dunn County Rural Broadband Gap Analysis Report is only the beginning of efforts to improve Internet access for residents of Dunn County.

A series of scheduled events would help to show the public what is happening and what is not happening for rural broadband, Colson said.

The rural broadband initiative has a number of different stakeholders, and helping them understand Dunn County’s role would also be of service, Tripp said.

After the Dunn County Board approves the final draft of the report, the report can be posted on the Dunn County website so county residents will have access to the information, Colson said.

Once the report is available to the public, then quarterly forums could be held. Team members who worked on the gap analysis and on writing the report should meet a couple of times a year to keep the flow of information going, Colson said.

Developing a better definition of who the stakeholders are would be helpful too, he said.

Maps

The community resources and tourism committee spent part of the meeting reviewing maps included with the report.

During the public informational meetings earlier this year, the company people complained about the most as providing exceptionally poor Internet access in rural areas of the county is CenturyLink.

Although it is not surprising, the maps show areas in rural Dunn County where CenturyLink is available as being the only ISP with no competition from other internet service providers.

Some residents of rural Dunn County have reported they have cancelled their service with CenturyLink because the Internet access is so slow.

Many of the county’s in-home and start-up businesses are located in rural areas, and the small businesses are big economic engines for Dunn County, Colson said.

If good service is available, people will be more likely to move to Dunn County, Turner said.

People want a more rural quality of life, “but they are ham-stringed without the Internet,” he said.

Turner says he will be using the maps from the Rural Broadband Gap Analysis Report when he meets with ISPs about about applying for grants.

The report also will help Dunn County move toward being a Broadband Forward! community, Turner said.

According to the PSC’s website, a Broadband Forward! Community Certification indicates a local unit of government has taken steps to reduce obstacles to broadband infrastructure investment.

Dunn County’s ordinance on telecommunications towers is out of line with state statute, and the county will be working to bring the ordinance up to state standards, Colson noted.

Updating the ordinance will mean telecommunications towers will be a permitted use that requires a public hearing instead of having go before the Zoning Board of Adjustment for approval, he said.

The change will not mean fewer standards for telecommunications towers, but rather, a different way of obtaining a permit, Colson said.

The Dunn County Community Resources and Tourism Committee voted unanimously to recommend that the Dunn County Board accept the Rural Broadband Gap Analysis Report.

In addition to Tripp, Dunn County Board supervisors Sheila Stori, James Anderson, Mary Solberg and Tim Mather serve on the committee. Stori is the chair of the committee.