NEMAC

UNCA-NEMAC Broadband Service Characterization Project

Thanks to Stagg Newman and UNCA’s National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center (NEMAC) staff, we are collaborating with NEMAC to develop a pilot project to characterize the broadband service offers in WNC at a very granular level. NEMAC will work with Brian Drawert to coordinate this project with work on the wncbroadnband.org website including using surveys and speed test as input.

According to Stagg, the project will characterize the service offered at the street level, thus eliminating the inaccuracy created by the census block reports based on FCC data. The project will build on the work begun in the WestNGN-UNCA project. The first phase of the project will i) analyze the needs of the different clients for an expanded project; ii) assess the feasibility of a larger project and scale of the effort; and iii) characterize a pilot area as a demonstration.

The over-all purpose of characterizing the WNC Broadband Infrastructure is to provide more useful data that can

i) inform local governments, business leaders, and communities of the state and quality, and particularly the speed, of broadband deployment at the street level;

ii) enable community leaders and service providers to partner to solve broadband infrastructure Issues;

iii) help service providers to assess the business opportunity for building or upgrading broadband infrastructure for specific geographic communities;

iv) and enable service providers in partnership with communities and local government to apply successfully for federal and state grants and non-profit funds where needed to attract investment in unserved and under-served areas.

Insights from the characterization may also lead to the need for new public policies, either for funding or for regulation to solve the growing digital divide problem for both fixed and mobile broadband in WNC.