Lyon County residents are encouraged to take part in an online survey that could well help the county’s fledgling effort to expand broadband Internet access countywide.
County Controller Dan Williams said broadband expansion to unserved and underserved populations is approved under the American Rescue Plan, so the county is working with Madison Telephone, S&A Telephone, ValuNet FIBER and Wheat State Technologies to develop solutions for county residents. Williams is encouraging residents to go online to www.lyoncounty.org and fill out a short “Lyon County Test Your Internet Speed” survey under the Quick Links on the home page. This will determine which locations meet the federal government’s service standards of 25 megabits per second of download speed and three megs of upload speed…and which ones don’t.
Emporia is currently well-served, as are portions of north Lyon County and south Lyon County — but others have no service at this time.
Williams says the goal is to build a new network, essentially expanding the county partners’ current footprints across the county. He says this is vitally important to county operations, business operations and quality of life as a whole.
Kansas getting around $5 billion in American Rescue Plan funding. It’s currently unclear how much is earmarked directly for broadband expansion, so Lyon County is looking at direct federal funding and other resources, including possibly private grants, to make the expansion happen.
Click here for the link to the county website. Lyon County’s partners also have links on their websites.
