Iron County, MI. –The Iron County Broadband Committee has partnered with Connected Nation’s community engagement program, Connected, to come up with a plan to improve access to high speed Internet in Iron County. The initial step to developing a comprehensive, county-oriented plan will consist of a short survey that will be offered to residents in order to better understand their distinct attitudes and needs with regard to current and future internet access in Iron County.
Participation in the online survey (www.connectmycommunity.org/iron-county ) will take approximately ten minutes and will help the committee to better understand the status of high-speed broadband Internet access, adoption, and use in Iron County. After a structured evaluation of this assessment, the Broadband Committee and Connected will develop appropriate action plans and projects to effectively and efficiently improve Iron County’s broadband environment.
“Quality broadband internet access is important to not only the City of Crystal Falls but also to the entire western Upper Peninsula region. Crystal Falls, in our partnership with Packerland Broadband, is one of the leaders in this area in the Upper Peninsula as Packerland currently provides access to 1 Gb download speeds to residents and businesses in the community,” Patrick Reagan, City Manager of Crystal City Falls, said.
“However, the City of Crystal Falls firmly believes that just offering access is not enough – we believe that in order to capitalize on this opportunity, we must also have a strong plan in place that puts forth how we will utilize these tremendous internet speeds to positively impact our students, residents, and businesses so that our community can prosper in the years ahead,” Reagan explained.
“Getting everyone’s input – from parents to educators to businesses to the agricultural community – is key in helping us develop a Technology Action Plan that meets the unique needs of Iron County,” Tom Stephenson, Community Technology Advisory for Connected Nation’s community engagement program, said. “The more input we get, the more likely we are able to identify ways to create broadband access, adoption, and use to ensure that no one in Iron County is left out.”
To take the survey: www.connectmycommunity.org/iron-county.
(Aaron Harper,WJNR,WOBE,WHTO)
aaronharper22@gmail.com