Point well taken Alicia,

When the county commissions a study group, you have to consider if it’s about them or not.

If they are looking at expansion,  they might want to look at the Infrastructures CWGs work for on the matter, there were 2 gentlemen that did some really in depth looks at IT, cel phones, etc. I don’t want to volunteer their names, but they were experts in their fields.

The data will be 5 or 6 years old though, but it has been studied before. Like many things the county has “studied” over the years without acting on, to keep people quiet.

It took us 3 years just to get ours, dial-up IS agonizing.

I have been hoping for some progress in high-speed internet availability since moving back to Powhatan in 2007.  In my neighborhood our only options for high-speed are through Comcast or a satellite system like Hughes Net.  Both of these are far more expensive than service would be through Verizon.

In my opinion, internet access is becoming almost as much of a necessity as phone service for most households.  It seems unfair that parts of the county are left behind as the technology moves in to the new and higher-income neighborhoods.  This is largely due to the cost-benefit analyses done by Verizon, I’m sure.  But, it would be helpful if the county worked toward narrowing the gaps that exist on behalf of all of the county citizens.

And to Darrell, I don’t think the broadband study group is studying this for county government purposes, but rather for the broader purpose of bringing broadband to the county’s citizenry.

Better availability is a good thing, but in terms of broadband, the only benefit that faster connections bring is better quality for gaming and streaming video.

For internet surfing, it might load the page a fraction of a second earlier.
For everyday information, work, email, etc. It doesn’t make much of a difference.

For county public service purposes, a standard dsl speed is more than sufficient. If it isn’t, perhaps we have folks on the taxpayer’s dime that have too much time on their hands.