When Sam Lapcevich went to look for his home and business near Scenery Hill on the Federal Communications Commission’s newly released National Broadband Map website, which shows internet speeds in locations, his address was nowhere to be found.
Lapcevich is already dealing with snail-paced Internet at his North Bethlehem Township property, which also serves as the site for his Branded Threads business, making life difficult when trying to stream video or run an e-commerce business.
That’s why he hoped the federal survey, which runs through Jan. 13, will help regulators get a clearer picture of which areas are underserved or underserved by high-speed broadband. But instead, he had to enter his geographic coordinates on his website, raising concerns that regulators knew the status of his community’s internet service.
Lapcevich only has download speeds of 15 megabits, making the internet unreliable for her and many of her neighbors in rural Washington County.
“In this day and age, you need high-speed Internet,” Lapcevic said. “If you even try to stream something or do something as simple as surfing the web, you’ll be so busy that you can’t do them at the same time. This is just one person. “I can’t imagine if there are four or five people in the network.”
Officials in Washington County, which began a broadband expansion last year using federal stimulus funds, hope local residents will participate in an FCC survey to give regulators a better idea of the challenges rural communities face when it comes to Internet service. John Timney, director of the Washington County Administration, which is responsible for the broadband expansion program, said the FCC survey complements a statewide survey of communities they conducted last spring to see which communities need improvements.
“If we make a mistake and don’t fix it, we’re going to lose the prospect of funding,” Timney said. “(The FCC) will use this as a barometer for how much money we’re going to get and who’s going to get that money.”
The current FCC request is designed to clear up confusion about which neighborhoods are adequately served by high-speed Internet, meaning download speeds of at least 25 megabits. In the past, if one person in a census block had that internet speed, all other homes in that area were considered serviced by the FCC.
“We talked about the nuances of who was served and who wasn’t served, and usually it was a gross discrepancy and unfair to others in the census block,” Timney said.
The mapping was more localized in November, Timney said, but there are still bugs that need to be fixed or updated.
People can now “compete” against the internet speed that a telco claims to provide. The survey offers a speed test that can be tailored to what the FCC believes is being offered to a residence or business. The property owner can then enter the information into the county’s survey, and officials there will file objections with the FCC for corrections.
As of Friday, Timney said 225 people in Washington County had taken the FCC survey. He hopes to have more involved by January 13, though there is a grace period for more issues to come after that date. Timney wants enough Washington state residents to participate in the process to give the FCC a more accurate picture of the situation as state officials prepare to award multiple contracts this year to expand broadband in many rural communities.
Lapcevich has yet to receive upgraded internet service despite being within a mile of Scenery Hill, which recently partnered with DQE to install high-speed broadband lines for homes and businesses along Route 40 in the village. But he believes that if more people participate in the survey, the process will eventually benefit his community.
“I think it will (help),” Lapcevic said. “We’re trying to spread the word as much as we can. This is what will come down. The answer they got.”
Anyone with questions or concerns about the county’s broadband expansion program can email the Washington County Office at broadbandhelp@co.washington.pa.us or call the office directly at 724-250-6418.
