Mapping Helps Get More Connected

By Pam Cassady, The Bowling Green Daily News

Connected Nation tests for broadband availability as part of an effort to increase Internet access

While children splashed in the fountain at Circus Square Park on Monday afternoon, a group of men gathered around high-tech equipment and listened as Chip Spann, director of engineering and technical services at Connected Nation, explained how to validate broadband service data.

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Locals Join Statewide Broadband Initiative

From Silver Pinyon Journal:

WINNEMUCCA – Community leaders in Humboldt County have joined Connect Nevada’s statewide initiative to expand broadband adoption and use. They met July 12 to form an advisory committee in support of the effort to increase technology use in the county.

Heading up that committee are Bill Sims, of the Humboldt Development Authority, and Mike Bell, of the Humboldt County Commission. Both are also involved with the Winnemucca Futures Project, which identified broadband access in the county as one area that needed improvement – along with communication infrastructure in general.

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Connected Nation Furthers Efforts to Reach Rural Areas

By Caitlin Coffey/WBKO.com

For most people, all the information you could hope for is accessible with a click of the mouse.

But for many rural areas across South Central Kentucky broadband service is not available.

There is a national push to get all rural areas broadband Internet, and one organization helping research and find areas that need it is Connected Nation.

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Connect Ohio program opens 'whole new world' to Marion couple

MARION - They're a two-computer couple now.

Roseanna Wenig and her husband, Ralph, won't have to share computer time anymore.

The Marion woman won a Dell laptop computer, valued at $399, following her participation in the Every Citizen Online program, a free statewide basic computer and Internet training program.

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Air Advantage Proposes Swapping Two Free Wireless Hotspots for Cell Tower Use

The high speed Internet company, backed by the county, wants to bring wireless broadband high-speed Internet to the township.

By Jen Anesi | OaklandTownshipPatch

Representatives from Oakland County and Air Advantage, a Frankenmuth-based Internet service provider, presented a plan during Tuesday's Board of Trustees meeting to bring wireless broadband high-speed Internet to the township.

Air Advantage said its Broadband Stimulus Project would make high-speed Internet available to residents in more rural areas who are underserved – or not served at all – by other Internet service providers like Comcast and AT&T.

The project is part of a $7.2 billion federal project to bring wireless Internet to underserved and rural communities throughout the nation. Air Advantage received $64.2 million in grants and loans through the U.S. Department of Agriculture to fund the project in 2010; the Michigan company also gave $10.2 million in private contributions to the project.

“We believe everybody should have access to the Internet," said Phil Bertolini, deputy county executive and CIO for Oakland County.

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What could better Internet access mean for Michigan's recovery?

By Rick Haglund |AnnArbor.com

More than 90 percent of Michigan residents have access to high-speed Internet service at home, but about a third don’t subscribe because it’s either too expensive or they don’t think they need it, a new survey shows.

The study by the Michigan Public Service Commission and Connect Michigan is the first to assess how people use the Internet in the state.

Officials say the results have broad implications for policymakers and Internet providers planning for the future needs of their customers, as well as for the state’s economy.

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Byrum: Broadband can help grow ag economy

Lansing State Journal
Op-Ed

Expanding high-speed broadband access presents a real opportunity for Michigan to grow our economy, especially in rural areas.

For Michigan agriculture, broadband access can help rural businesses, farms and communities truly compete in a 21st century global economy, by accessing information faster, attracting investments and creating new jobs in areas of our state that typically struggle to get access to new technology. That's why Michigan agri-businesses are excited about the potential broadband expansions into rural areas that the AT&T-T-Mobile merger would create.

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