Two questions to answer

[Lagemann, Andrea]

Does anyone have the following information?

 

Approximate percentage of households in entire community with access to broadband Internet service?

 

Appoximate percentage of the households in entire community that are currently subscribing to broadband Internet service?

 

Thanks

Andrea

[Mary Alice Ball]

Hi Andrea,

There are no reliable answers to your questions, a not uncommon situation around the country. The FCC acknowledges that data from telcos is not accurate or complete. This is why I suggested at last night's meeting that we should follow Philadephia's lead and try to create a broadband map. I think if we tell Google that we are beginning to work on the map it will work in our favor. I just got advice and a copy of the survey from the researcher in Philly who was responsible for their mapping initiative. It would be fairly easy to put it on the web but would require much more face-to-face interaction to get responses from people who don't have internet access. They are the folks we're trying to find out about, aren't we?

Mary Alice

[Warren C. Walker II]

Andrea,

 

The Short answers are:

 

1)      All areas of Evanston has access to broadband internet service.

2)      There are no statics on actual adoption rates for targeted areas (either by postal code, census tract or other).

 

The Long answers are:

 

Every area of Evanston has access to broadband (DSL, cable, wireless, T1-3 from such companies as AT&T (DSL/T1-3) , Comcast (cable), Clear (4G wireless), Cricket, Sprint, Verizon (all 3G and 4G wireless) and others.  This is known as “the number of houses passed.”  If by some chance there are areas that are not served, the alderman in each ward may be aware of this.

 

Whether the service is adequate is another story.  DSL has distance limits.  The further away you are from a central location the less bandwidth you will receive.  Cable has usage aggregation issues and wireless is impacted by how large an area each cellular “tower” site can cover. 

 

Currently the FCC is defining broadband as 764kbps download and 256kbps upload.  I’m pretty certain most, if not all Evanstonian’s can receive this speed.  The FCC is further defining high speed as 5mbps symmetrical (5mbps download and 5mbps upload).  While DSL, cable and wireless handily meet the download speeds, currently marketed DSL speeds do not meet the upload threshold.  Also cable has not been upgraded everywhere to support the upload speed.

 

This above can make areas of Evanston “under-served”.

 

 

Best Regards,

Warren C. Walker II

 

Atmosphere Communications, Inc.

Technology Innovation Center

820 Davis Street

Suite 126

Evanston, Illinois 60201

(:  847-563-4416

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*: wwa...@myatmosphere.net

 

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[Bill Smith]

Hi Andrea,

I think the answer to the first question: "have access?" -- i.e.,
could get the service if they chose to pay for it --
should be available from Comcast as part of their franchise
relationship with the city. If, at this late date, there
are portions of Evanston other than the NU campus that are not passed
by Comcast service, that would surprise me. (And folks on the NU
campus presumably have broadband access provided by the university.)

The answer to the question of how many people actually pay to
subscribe to the service from either Comcast or AT&T would be somewhat
more difficult to determine -- though I think Joe McRae would have
some idea of the answer. Survey project would be interesting as well.

Bill Smith
bi...@evanstonnow.com
847-733-7526

[carl...@comcast.net]

Mary Alice,

 

You may add that the mapping can be done using the City's GIS mapping, which at least goes down to the parcel level, which I realize doesn't drill down to housholds directly, but with a bit of work, it sure could get you to where you want to be over some time period for input.  Perhaps addresses is something we could ask for in upcoming franchise agreements.

 

Carl Bova

[Jordan S. Zoot, CPA.CITP.CISM.CGEIT]

Is there any reason why the City as a regulator can't compel Comcast,
Verizon, etc to provide the details? Sometimes the obvious isn't
obvious?

On Mar 17, 1:53 pm, "Lagemann, Andrea" <ALagem...@cityofevanston.org>
wrote: