Thursday, August 23, 2007

El Dorado County satisfaction survey omits broadband

El Dorado County, California officials have released the results of a telephone poll of 600 county residents in April assessing their satisfaction with living in the county.

The 331-page El Dorado County Resident Satisfaction Survey contains a major design flaw. While it asked those polled if they had Internet access and subcategorized residents who have it, the survey failed to ask residents if they have broadband Internet access. If it had, it would have likely found high levels of dissatisfaction with the lack thereof in much of the county where residents are forced to use early 1990s era dialup or sub-optimal satellite Internet connections.

A quick perusual of this petition to AT&T signed by more than 200 county residents and their accompanying comments shows had the survey included broadband access, it would have likely borne out high levels of resident dissatisfaction.

At best, county officials dropped the ball by permitting the omission of this question from the survey. At worst, they've chosen to sweep this vital infrastructure issue under the rug by deliberately leaving it out.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Fred,
Thank you for all of your hard work for the people of rural El Dorado County!!! I whole- heartedly support you regarding all of your work for the betterment of broadband internet for all of us. I wish that the powers-that-be would realize that we here in rural EDC would be a good and profitable market for broadband internet vendors. It is truly unfortunate that AT&T and Comcast have chosen to deny us rights into the broadband world that so many others have been given.

Chad Dykstra