FRANKLIN COUNTY, Va. – More than 50,000 people in our area are one step closer to having access to faster internet service.
Despite living in a technology based world, many rural parts of our community still struggle to connect.
The terrain has made it challenging for Franklin County, but community input is making a difference.
SlowMany people in the area complain of slow internet speeds, no cell service, and constant dead spots. According to a recent study, 80 percent of people living in Franklin County have limited to no access to broadband. It’s a struggle that is all too familiar to teens.
"It's a lot harder to get my school work done, so I'd have to come to school a lot earlier and go the library and do it or take up class time to do it,” said Rachel Vanness, a Franklin County High School senior.
Though the problem stretches far beyond the classroom. It, it certainly takes a toll on students and teachers.
Marsha Lopez is a teacher at Franklin County High School. She says many of her students don’t have internet access at home.
"We do require them to use internet now for their assignments so much,” Lopez said. “It's such a big part of everyone's life, and so they have to make special arrangements, maybe to go to a neighbor’s house, or a friend’s house after school. Sometimes they have to come into school early to get their work done so this is very important for our kids."
Now, with Lopez’s help, the kids are playing an important role in bringing that technology to the entire community.
In an effort to lay the infrastructure for broadband, the county recently finished a massive survey of all residents pinpointing weak spots of internet service.
In total, they received more than 6,200 surveys. Highlighting just how many people lack strong internet access, more than half of those surveys received were paper copies instead of the electronic version found through the county’s website. That means a lot of extra, tedious data entry for the county, that would have taken an estimated three months to complete.
Lopez's office skills class at Franklin County High School took on the task, and completed data entry in just 10 days.They. They are the first to know what the community is saying about the issue.
Gregory Decol, a junior at FCHS, is one of those students helping with the project. He says many of the responses show the frustrations of people living in the area. He says the need is tremendous. “A
"A lot of people want it (broadband) and they want it fast," Decol said.
Once the data these teens entered is analyzed, the county will assess cost and begin the bidding process for internet service providers.
That could begin by the end of this year.