Is your Web as much as scratch? Curious counties need to know | Native Information

Residents of Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties are inspired to check their web velocity. The outcomes of a broadband wants evaluation survey and velocity take a look at will assist determine alternatives to enhance Web velocity, entry and value.

The Broadband Consortium of the Pacific Coast (BCPC) launched an web wants evaluation survey and velocity take a look at marketing campaign in three counties for the general public to self-report their web expertise and velocity at residence, at work or wherever it connects.

The marketing campaign is a part of a California Rising Expertise Fund (CETF)-funded effort to develop a regional strategy to determine broadband infrastructure gaps and areas of want, speed up broadband deployment, and catalyze an area response to digital fairness points.

Knowledge from the survey and velocity take a look at marketing campaign shall be mapped by GEO Companions, LLC., a geospatial engineering agency, and used to determine areas of the county with little or no high-speed Web entry. As a part of this take a look at, people may also determine areas the place service is weak or non-existent or the place web entry is unaffordable.

The wants evaluation survey for Santa Barbara County was accomplished in June 2022 as a part of the Santa Barbara County Broadband Strategic Plan. Santa Barbara County residents are inspired to submit velocity checks to proceed gathering knowledge for regional planning.

In December 2020, Governor Gavin Newsom signed landmark laws, Broadband for All, to advance the state’s dedication to offering inexpensive entry to high-speed Web service all through California.

Info gathered from the survey and tri-county velocity take a look at shall be used to hunt funding to enhance inexpensive high-performance web entry throughout the area to enhance digital inclusion. Amassing velocity take a look at knowledge is crucial to realize the next targets:

Designing broadband infrastructure that interconnects communities and households by midstream networks and native last-mile priorities to extend capability, redundancy and resilience for catastrophe preparedness and encourage competitors in trade.

Advance digital inclusion work efforts that enhance entry to inexpensive broadband and supply the instruments and coaching wanted to attach residents to the social, financial and democratic alternatives afforded by Web entry.

Upkeep of a geographic info system (GIS) that leverages public enter and venture knowledge to determine infrastructure venture priorities and compiles group and execution eventualities to supply motion steps for private and non-private efforts.

Knowledge shall be collected throughout the tri-county space by mid-2023, with a deliberate enlargement of knowledge assortment all year long and into early 2024. Knowledge collected through the two coming months will prioritize equities for last-mile infrastructure investments for funds to be acquired subsequent 12 months.

The BCPC is one in every of many strategic initiatives led by the Financial Improvement Collaborative. Fashioned in 2014, the consortium is funded by the California Public Utilities Fee, which champions broadband deployment and adoption in Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties.