One thing COVID-19 restrictions did – with many people meeting remotely and schooling remotely – is put an emphasis on the broadband internet problems.
Guilford County now has federal money to help address those problems and county leaders are beginning the process by engaging the public to seek their input on how to address the issues.
To that end, the county is asking all those with thoughts on the matter to either attend a community meeting or complete a survey.
This is part of the county’s effort to identify the places where broadband service is poor or nonexistent. The information will be used to develop a strategy meant to assist communities where either: (1) access or service is lacking, or (2) the cost to users is too high.
This broadband study is being paid for with funding Guilford County received from the American Rescue Plan (ARP).
A series of “Gaps and Opportunities Community Meetings” will take place next month. The meetings will be held in-person as well as virtually – which is a good idea because it’s very hard to complain about your internet connection over the internet if you have no internet connection.
Here are the meeting days scheduled so far:
- Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2022 – Windsor Community Center, 1601 East Lee Street in Greensboro
- Thursday, Jan. 6 – Northeast Guilford High School, 6700 McLeansville Road in McLeansville
- Monday, Jan. 10 – Nathanael Greene Elementary, 2717 NC 62 E. in Liberty.
- Tuesday, Jan. 11 – Brown Recreation Center, 302 E. Vandalia Road in Greensboro
- Thursday, Jan. 13 – Washington Terrace Community Center, 101 Gordon St. in High Point
You can also watch the Jan. 10 meeting virtually on Guilford County’s Facebook livestream.
If you can’t attend any of the meetings, you can still complete the online survey by Friday, Jan. 14. You’ll be asked questions about your experience, including:
- If you currently have access to the internet
- How you access the internet at home
- Your internet speeds and costs
- What digital devices you use to access the internet.
- How comfortable you are completing certain tasks on the internet
If you prefer to leave a voicemail – perhaps because your internet connection stinks – you can call 855-925-2801 and enter Project Code 2782 to leave any comments.
To request printed or translated materials, you can contact Simone Robinson at
info@pppconsulting.net or 919-706-5449.
Once more, government overreach. Private enterprise should be held accountable for offering services within an area, not Government deciding to spend our tax dollars to give households internet.
Name me one service Government provides that is as good as private enterprise.
For starters: Hospitals. Police. Fire. Highway maintenance. Sewer/Water filtration. Social services, including homeless relief and mental health counselling. The military should be disbanded, because it’s ‘socialism’, right? Yeah, Carlyle, Wackenhut and Blackwater did such a great job for us in the Mid-East $$$$
Look at all the Third World places you’d call “$#!tholes” that provide free public wifi to all:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Municipal_wireless_network
If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there’d be a shortage of sand.
-Milton Friedman
If mankind can’t advance without broadband internet, they’re already doomed. We need unprocessed food, clean water & love. The rest is trivial.
-Me
stevethetuna, the wifi in those countries isn’t free, and it isn’t provided by their governments. It costs money, and the money comes from . . . TAXPAYERS!
Lol. How do you hold a company accountable? How do you convince a private business to help the low income folks that wouldn’t have the opportunity to advance without reliable access to broadband internet? How do you convince a private company to operate in rural areas that don’t have the critical mass for broadband internet?
Right! People need to separate their StupidPhone from their eyeballs long enough to avoid getting hit in a parking lot.
On another note, if the City thinks that everyone is entitled to access, then broadband should be a Utility, not a private business. Then everyone would pay more to a regulated industry. Or, Spectrum and AT&T need competition.
We have no Broadband service. We only have the choice of Spectrum. They charge entirely way too much for poor service that does not deliver the speed promised and buffering that is ridiculous, and blame it on our wifi that is their equipment. I’m angry at paying over $225.month for internet/cable/phone for one tv, no premium channels, and one computer, 2 laptops on wifi. It makes no sense.
Deborah you hit the nail on the head!
American Believer says YOU should just hold them accountable. No big deal right?!
That’s because they don’t have any competition. I have about the same level of service that you do, I’ve reduced my service twice. My cost is $153. I can switch to AT&T, but in my experience, they are the very WORST. AT&T is predatory.
I am still waiting for North State. In Asheboro, they have Cox Cable, a private company – so they have better service and lower costs.