DC Broadband Taskforce survey ready for county residents
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
Editor’s Note: LeAnn R. Ralph serves on the Dunn County Broadband Taskforce
MENOMONIE — Is your Internet slow?
Do you have trouble watching videos online, or events that are live-streamed, because they freeze or “stutter?”
Does your Internet service stall out when you are sending a larger document or a photograph?
Maybe you don’t have any Internet access available at all where you live.
Or maybe the high-speed broadband Internet access that is available where you live is too expensive, preventing you from being connected.
The Dunn County Broadband Taskforce wants to hear about your experiences.
A survey has been developed by the Dunn County Broadband Taskforce to identify areas in Dunn County that are lacking affordable high-speed Internet.
The Taskforce also would like to hear from you if you have high-speed Internet available that you are currently connected with and using.
The survey results will be used to help Dunn County write a high-speed “Internet for all” plan that must be submitted to the state of Wisconsin in June.
The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin will then use the broadband plans they receive from the counties to write a state plan. The state’s plan will be submitted to the federal government to apply for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law money that is available for broadband expansion to bring high-speed Internet to all residents in the United States.
The Dunn County Broadband Task Force has also developed a post-card sized survey that will be sent out to 5,000 county residents who are in areas not served by fiber-optic high-speed Internet or areas that are under-served.
Online survey
The online survey asks a total of eight questions.
Do you or can you have high-speed Internet at your residence? — yes or no.
Which service providers are available to you for residential network connectivity. Choose all that apply or none if service is not available — 24/7 West Wisconsin Telcom; AT&T; Bloomer Telecom; Lumen (CenturyLink), Mosaic (Chibardun), Nextgen, Spectrum (Charter), other.
Is your connection greater than 100M? — yes; no; unsure fast enough; unsure too slow.
Do you consider the cost affordable? — Yes; I am not connected because of the cost; the cost is too high.
The survey then asks you to place a pin at your location on a map of Dunn County. Your browser will automatically place the pin if you allow your browser to access your location.
Would you like to answer more questions? — yes or no.
If you answer no, you are done with the survey and can submit your survey.
If you answer yes, the following questions are on the next page.
For what purpose would you use broadband (check all that apply)? — school, work from home, streaming videos, Telehealth, farm use, business use, other.
Does a veteran reside at the residence? — yes or no.
Is there anything else you would like us to know? — with space available to type in your comments.
Postcard survey
The postcard survey that will be mailed out to 5,000 residents asks four questions.
Do you have access to high speed Internet? — yes or no.
Is your network connection fast enough to stream videos? — yes or no.
Choose the providers available in your area — Mosaic/Chibardun, 24/7 West Wisconsin Telcom; Spectrum/Charter; CenturyLink/Brightspeed; Bloomer Telecom; other and a line for you to indicate which other services are available.
The postcard also asks for an address if you are responding for an address other than the return address on the postcard.
The postcards are pre-addressed and prepaid, so when you are finished with the survey, drop the postcard in the mail.
In addition, the postcards have the website address for the Dunn County Broadband Taskforce (www.co.dunn.wi.us/broadband), a telephone number and an e-mail address if you have questions.
Deadline
The Dunn County Broadband Taskforce will begin processing survey results on June 1.
If you live in an area where there is no Internet available or if you do not have a computer or another device that can connect to the Internet, you can go to your public library to fill out the survey online.
The survey can be found online at www.co.dunn.wi.us/broadband.
The link to the survey is on the right-hand side of the webpage.
The Dunn County Broadband Taskforce asks that you pass along the information about the survey to people who might not be aware of the survey.
The more information the Taskforce receives, the better able the Taskforce will be to figure out the needs for high-speed Internet in Dunn County.
