Saline County looking for input on broadband access in the community

With surveys of the community about broadband access still out and available for people to respond to, Saline County is hosting several community forums on the topic this week.

The county is working with Design Nine, a communications engineering firm, on a "comprehensive broadband study" of the community, a process that is not at all new to the company.

"We've done about 300 broadband studies across the country, most of them in fairly rural counties or groups of counties," said Jack Maytum, senior business analyst for Design Nine.

According to the county, during this study, the company is looking at what is currently being offered in terms of types of broadband access, as well as where these services are available throughout the county.

"The analysis will cover the types of broadband services available, usage patterns, and, most importantly, gaps in coverage," the county said.

The survey is available to both residents and businesses and with another option in Spanish.

What information will the Saline County broadband survey get?

This survey consists of 23 questions ranging in topics from how important internet access is to households, the reasons internet is used in the house and even how satisfied they may be with their current service.

Maytum said one of the important reasons for the survey is to determine where broadband is available in the county.

"The first thing we're trying to do is get an analysis or inventory of the existing broadband infrastructure in the county," he said.

In addition understanding where access is or isn't, the survey will also let the company, and the county, know what the public's thoughts are about broadband access in the community.

"(We're) asking them ... in general what they would like their broadband service to be and how to improve it," Maytum said.

He said the survey has already received around 500 responses from residents and 35 from businesses since it launched at the end of May, with some useful information already coming in.

One thing that is already apparent to Maytum so far is that people in Salina are typically satisfied with their internet, which isn't surprising considering larger metropolitan areas have better broadband access.

"One you get outside of Salina, of course, it's a different story," he said. "The responses from those more rural areas indicates there's a need for better broadband."

He said knowing this already, Design Nine will likely focus on what can be done in these rural areas.

What other methods are Saline County using to learn about broadband in the community?

Besides the survey, the county is hosting several community forums in various parts of the county so that Design Nine can hear, in person, what people think about broadband access.

For the company, hearing in-person thoughts gives a lot of information that they might not be able to give through the survey.

"The survey gives us a more generalized response that we can analyze, but face-to-face is important too depending on the person you're talking to," Maytum said. "It's amazing when I go around and do these talks, the amount of people that come out of the woodworks and are very knowledgeable about their own circumstance and about what's happening in general."

He said at the end of the study, there will be a report given to stakeholders including providers, the county and more, and these comments will be included for them to see as well.

Here's a list of when and where these broadband community forums for Saline County residents will take place this week:

• 1 p.m. Tuesday, June 25, at the Salina Public Library Tech Center, 301 W. Elm St.
• 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 25, at the Smolan Community Building, 320 W. Smolan Road, Smolan.
• 7 p.m. Wednesday, June 26, at Rural Fire District No. 3 Fire Station, 2911 N. Hedville Road.
• 7 p.m. Thursday, June 28, at Rural Fire District No. 5 Fire Station, 1860 N. Simpson Road, New Cambria.

Additionally, there will be a Broadband for Business forum at 8 a.m. Wednesday, June 26, in the Visit Salina Annex of the Salina Area Chamber of Commerce, 120 W. Ash St.

Finally, the county knows that not everyone has access to the internet, so in addition to the online surveys, paper surveys are available at several locations throughout the community in such places as coffee shops, libraries and community centers.