For the News-Tribune
KEYSER, WV – Mineral Countians have a serious interest in seeing improved broadband access in the county as well as competitive affordable services, according to a recent survey that was conducted as part of a study to expand and improve the service.
“Much of that interest comes from residents who work from home or who want to work from home as well as established businesses that expressed the fact that availability of broadband Internet in the county does not meet their needs,” said Mona Ridder, executive director of the Mineral County Development Authority.
According to Andrew Cohill, president of Design Nine of Blacksburg, Va., the consulting firm that is doing the study, “Mineral County had the highest response rate of any similar-sized county” he has seen.
“We have conducted many of these for other rural counties with demographics similar to Mineral County, and by a wide margin, Mineral County had the highest response rate,” he said.
The study is being funded by an Appalachian Regional Commission grant of $25,000 matched by the Mineral County Commission. The Mineral County Development Authority applied for the grant and requested proposals from consultants to do the study which is slated for completion on Sept. 30. A full report on the study and its recommendations will be presented to the authority and the county commission in November.
The information that came out of the survey indicated that 94 percent of businesses in the county use the Internet and 66 percent of those businesses are not satisfied with their current connection. Business uses of the Internet include VoIP telephone service (15 percent), business videoconferencing (26 percent), network backups (29 percent) and transfer of large files (44 percent).
“Businesses seem willing to pay for more and better access, with 76 percent indicating they would be willing to pay more,” said Cohill.
The data indicates that 85 percent of businesses believe that the Internet is “very important” to the future success of their business and 97 percent indicated their business would benefit from more affordable Internet access.
Of the business respondents, 19 percent indicated they have a full time business based in the home and another 57 percent indicated they need at least part time access to their business from home.
“There responses show that there is a very savvy group of business people and entrepreneurs in the county and that the Internet has become an essential business tool,” said Cohill. “Forty years ago, communities were building water and sewer infrastructure to attract businesses, and today, community investments in fiber are what helps attract jobs and businesses to a region.”
Ridder agreed pointing out that in the 21st century “telecommunications has become as important a part of the infrastructure and water, sewer, electricity and highways, all of which the county continues to find ways to expand to better serve its citizens.”
The residential response rate was extremely high with almost 400 households answering the survey. Of those responding 90 percent indicated they use the Internet from home.
“That’s the highest number we have seen – ever,” said Cohill. “Even most urban areas don’t register this high for Internet use.
While 32 percent of the households are still on dial up, of those, 83 percent said they were on dial up because there was no other option. Only six percent of the dial up users said they were on it because they thought it was adequate. Nearly half of the households (46 percent) answering the survey said they were “not at all satisfied” with their Internet service while another 27 percent indicated they were “somewhat satisfied.” Only 7 percent indicated they were “very satisfied.” Overall 72 percent of users said they were will to pay more for better service.
Respondents indicated that 45 percent have someone in their residents who uses the Internet for school or job training one or several times a week, indicating the importance of good Internet access for an educated and skilled workforce.
Cohill said that with so many people working from home, business class services need to be available everywhere not just in downtowns or business parks. “Work from home is going to continue to rise as more people try to work from home to reduce the cost of driving long distances to work,” he added.
“It really is a new world,” said Ridder. “There are personal security issues involved in working in high population density areas as we’ve seen recently in the news, but also there is the fact that many of the jobs that have gone away as a result of the current economic situation are not coming back. We must train and retrain for the ever-changing high technology world that the future holds and the Internet is the key to that future.”
The questionnaire for the survey had an area where people could write their own comments and concerns. Cohill said that Mineral County had not only broken the record for the most comments but he had never seen such long detailed comments.
The Communications Infrastructure Committee of the development authority working with Design Nine on the study project has not made any decision about what direction it will take.
“We are waiting for the consultant’s final recommendations,” said Ridder.
Design Nine has indicated it will generally recommend that local governments not sell broadband services, but instead look for ways to help private sector companies improve the affordability and access to broadband.
