BATTLE MOUNTAIN - Debbie Erdody, community technology advisor with Connect Nevada, came before Lander County commissioners at their Feb. 9 meeting to deliver a presentation on how the county can become a Certified Broadband Community. She presented information on local broadband use as well as maps of coverage areas.
Connect Nevada is a non-profit organization working with the Nevada Broadband Task Force to increase broadband Internet access throughout the rural areas of the state. It focuses on expanding broadband access, adoption and use by designing and implementing regional broadband deployment strategies.
The plans include partners from the public and private sectors working together to increase broadband adoption and digital literacy. The goal of Connect Nevada is to help rural communities complete a technology assessment and provide a plan for broadband options. It works to give counties the tools to work on increasing broadband capability as well as access so that everybody has access to high-speed broadband.
Erdody explained that Connect Nevada helps rural communities through access, adoption and use. Access means "is the infrastructure here?" Adoption translates to "do residents use the technology available" and use refers to "are communities using technology to improve the quality of life?"
By scoring at least 32 out of 40 points in each of these three areas or a combined total of 100 out of 120 possible points, rural communities can become Certified Broadband Communities. This not only opens up more Internet and mobile device opportunities but can also help lure new businesses to the community, said Erdody.
Assessment areas of access consist of broadband availability, broadband speeds, broadband competition, access to the middle mile (which is the service from the network to the service provider) and mobile broadband availability. Adoption assessment areas include digital literacy, public computer centers, broadband awareness and a vulnerable population focus.
Use assessment areas are economic opportunity - economic development, business development, tourism and agriculture, education - K-12 education, higher education and libraries, healthcare and government - government, public safety and energy and environment.
According to Erdody's presentation, 82.56 percent of Lander County households have 768 kilobytes per second (kbps) capacity and 70.01 percent have 3 megabytes per second (mbps) capacity. Three mbps is more than three times faster than 768 kbps, said Erdody.
There are 81.8 percent of households that are served by fixed wireless platforms (768 kbps) and 95.4 percent served by mobile platforms (768 kbps).
According to her PowerPoint, 75 percent of Nevada businesses subscribe to broadband. There are 18 percent that do not use the Internet and 92 percent of businesses that use computers. The main barriers to broadband adoption for Nevada businesses are that they don't need broadband/the Internet or don't know why they don't subscribe.
Erdody said she will be looking for community team members to head a community assessment that includes collecting community technology resources, collecting community technology providers, collecting community websites and assessing community technology in the areas of access, adoption and use by utilizing the Connected Worksheet (a community assessment toolkit).
Possible members to the technology team include local officials, someone from the chamber of commerce, a local economic development representative, someone from the school district, an emergency management representative, a hospital official, business leaders and representatives of local non-profit organizations.
Erdody said the first step is appointing a champion, someone in the community to chair the technology committee. It was suggested by someone in the audience at the county commission meeting that the appointed person be Undersheriff Robert Quick. When spoken to after the meeting, Quick said he had not yet been officially asked but that he would be happy to work in that capacity.
In addition to forming a local technology team and doing a community assessment, the process also includes action planning and implementation.
The Connect Nevada program was officially launched in December 2009. The release of Nevada's first comprehensive statewide map of broadband coverage across the state occurred in May 2010.
Connect Nevada offers regional development teams for broadband expansion and includes experts who help communities plan the technical details for broadband expansion. The organization works with broadband providers in Nevada to help meet the concerns and answer questions in each community. The Lander County providers are AT&T, Verizon and PC Internet.
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