Jessica Hatch was tasked with getting more accurate speed test information. Jessica Hatch is the Door County, Wisconsin, Broadband Coordinator.
Door County is challenged as it is is a peninsula and is rocky, making installation of fiber a challenge. Jessica worked with the Door County Broadband Advisory Committee. The goal was to get sample data to create a broadband speed-test map that would allow better decision making and support grant requests.
The following is the Door County Broadband Advisory Committee local coordination approach for utilizing WISER broadband data capture to support fiber to the premise grant applications and infrastructure build out.
Standards:
Provide local coordination and support for municipal technology/broadband committees through the Broadband Coordinator and subject matter experts to minimize duplication of effort
Ensure that the work is in line with our County Broadband Infrastructure Engineering Assessment from Finley Engineering & CCG Consulting
Ensure there is a standardized quality survey tool to collect survey data that includes information on unserved and underserved areas, as well as speed tests
Objectives:
Provide a standardized survey source for local municipal committees to collect broadband information and use to support grant applications in a Public Private Partnership with an ISP
Utilize this data for a County wide broadband planning map & public forward-facing map to represent service coverage and speeds in your area
Utilize this data to capture the percentage of unserved vs. underserved throughout the County and within individual municipalities. Unserved and underserved households or businesses means one or more households or businesses that are not currently served by a wireline connection that reliably delivers at least 25 Mbps download speed and 3 Mbps of upload speed, or “25/3”. The definition of unserved is tied to the funding source. The definition for unserved under BEAD funding is 100/20, 100 Mbps download speed and 20 Mbps of upload speed.
Ensure that this survey will be accessible to everyone residents and businesses, homeowners and renters
Requirements/Task(s):
Task 1: You need an engineering analysis or broadband study for your area to determine what your broadband path and focus will be.
Task 2: You will need full-time local coordination to lead this, with constant communication and outreach at a local level.
Task 3: There will need to be an advisory group or committee that includes subject matter experts for your area and key stakeholders (County Supervisors, EDC, Education, Utilities, local business, technology fields including IT, software, broadband, legal etc.)
Task 4: Work with your GIS Director or whoever will be doing your mapping work for you to discuss your objectives. Consider a public forward-facing map and source such as a website to keep the public informed and engaged. Ensure that this work and data capture can be utilized as support material for funding.
Task 5: Work out your survey platform, marketing outreach, talking points for public education and timeline on publishing the survey. You want to ensure you are reaching everyone especially the unserved. You can reach out to jhatch@co.door.wi.us for what Door County did for this.
Task 6: Establish your Data Use Agreement with the Public Service Commission to utilize WISER and set your schedule and timelines to receive the data.
Task 7: Press release, marketing push/outreach/education, broadband ambassadors to help push the survey and talking points.
Task 8: Receive your data, create your map, review your analytics to utilize and determine where your focus areas are. Keep pushing, marketing and redistributing the survey in new partnerships and locations. (example map below)
Task 9: Provide the needed survey data to your local municipal committees to keep them updated, and for grant application support. Keep your partnership stakeholders and ambassadors updated.
Outline the steps/plan for your project:
Outline these steps in your municipal and partnership outreach.
Your talking points should be clear and concise for the general public including business owners to understand.
Support your coordinator/broadband champion.
Keep the public updated and involved.
Link to FiberNet Door County: https://fibernetdoorcounty.org/1141/Door-County-FiberNet
Video of Jessica speaking at the NTIA Internet for All: Connecting Wisconsin Kick Off. Jessica starts at about 4:16