'Net test coming to MC

County officials seek help to map broadband access

Calling all Madison County residents with a computer and Internet access. Help the county breeze into the future and study Madison County’s high speed Internet access availability.

Madison County officials are urging residents to be part of a study that maps out broadband or high speed Internet access.

The Virginia Tech campaign called Accelerate Virginia rests on citizens’ input in volunteering to take a two-minute “speed test” on their computers. The speed test will determine how fast your computer’s connection is and what type of service you have.

Log on to www.acceleratevirginia.org and take a two-minute test. There is no date as to when you have to take the test by but the sooner the better, said officials.

Any type of computer, including those with a dial-up connection, will work for the test.

“One type of service that I don’t believe is included in the service is cell phone signals. What they want is for you to be working on is a computer coming through a telephone or cable line or some other access and not with an air card that you plug into the computer,” Madison County Administrator Lisa Robertson said at the supervisors workshop last week.

The data collected will help provide a look at Madison County’s broadband availability and any broadband “dead zones.” (Broadband is just another name for high speed Internet that can be clocked at a certain speed.)

“There will be a ready map available that shows people which regions have the greatest need or lack of broadband service,” Robertson said.

The research group at Virginia Tech called E-corridors has been in existence since 2000. The purpose of the group is to promote broadband accessibility across Virginia. They are going to map areas in Virginia that have broadband service, areas that don’t have service available and dead zones where no broadband service is available.

Robertson said this type of data they are collecting will be very helpful to the county.

“For instance, when a provider is asking for approval of permits for a new tower you will be able to look on a map and verify what their existing areas of coverage are or whether they will be serving areas that don’t have coverage and then you won’t have to rely exclusively on the information the provider gives you as part of those applications,” Robertson said.

Fauquier County and Stafford County have already started its campaign, Robertson told supervisors at the May 26 workshop.

County officials said they will put out flyers and information on their Web site about the program.

“If schools are willing, we could get flyers out in kids’ backpacks so families would know to take the speed test,” Robertson said.

Supervisor Dave Allen said they probably would need to get authorization from the schools to use their computers for the study.

If all else fails, Supervisor Dave Allen suggested to get a message out through the Reverse 911 system. This is when the emergency system will make a call of a pre-recorded message to every house in Madison County. Usually, it is reserved for emergency purposes.

Taken from Madison County Eagle
By Marilyn Cox | Eagle Reporter
Published: June 06, 2011