News
Survey Scopes Broadband Access In Washington County
By: Olivia Bevan
Posted on:
Washington County residents may soon be receiving high-speed wireless Internet services.
County Commissioners and Connect Ohio are working with New Era Broadband Services to start a 30-day campaign to collect information about what residents need and want.
New Era will be placing signs along roads in areas of residences and businesses that do not get broadband.
The signs will ask residents to call 1-866-937-9991 and indicate if they would be interested in using the services if they were made available to them.
“The way our county is laid out, as far as hills and valleys and things like that, I don’t know doing signal through the air if we’ll ever be able to reach everybody, but of course that would be the goal. But just based on our topography and stuff, that probably won’t be possible,” said Tim Irvine, Washington County Commissioner.
Once the information is collected, New Era will determine a business plan for expanding its services throughout the county.
“Well, we have a lot of residents in our county that do not have access to high-speed broadband type Internet service and in today’s world that puts them at a disadvantage, especially if they’re trying to operate a small business or something like that. So, we would like to be able to provide high-speed Internet to as many people as possible,” said Irvine.
New Era Services is in the preliminary steps of expanding to Washington County and no official agreements or contracts have been made.