Sam Driggers, installed earlier this year as El Dorado County's economic development director, told county supervisors this week that having good Internet access is key to the county's economic health. Moreover, Driggers suggested, a higher quality of life that can be had outside urban areas should not mean going without broadband:
Your blogger and El Dorado County home-based business operator is heartened by Driggers' remarks to the board and hopes the supes give them the serious consideration they deserve.Driggers said El Dorado County appeals to people who want to get away from the hustle and bustle of more urban regions.
"People want to live in quality-of-life areas, but they also want to work. It's in tandem," he said, and Internet access is key. "If you don't have broadband, you don't have access to the world."
To underscore Driggers' efforts to get his bosses to view the county's telecommunications infrastructure as being as vital as highways, water and power when it comes to the county's economic health, I urge county residents to sign this petition. It calls on the supervisors to direct county staff and retain necessary outside consultants to establish a public private partnership with fiber optic telecommunications vendors to utilize county rights to way to construct open access fiber to the node/neighborhood (FTTN) infrastructure to serve the current and future telecommunications needs of residents and businesses situated within unincorporated El Dorado County.
3 comments:
Yes! I don't see how we can continue to evolve without up-to-date infrastructure. Primary and secondary school education presents us with increasing demands on modern technology. We owe it to our youth to provide them with a realistic chance to compete in the real world. Keep up the good work!
I personally could not agree more with the original post and comments. Intenet access is an integral part of the vast majority of our lives, on several levels; work, research, play and shopping to mention but a few of the uses that touch the everyday life of internet users from every walk of life.
Additonaly, as internet services continue to proliferate in El Dorado County, the build out needs to consider all facets of how wired/wirless commuication infrastrutures are built.
The City of Sacramento's contract wih Sac Metro Connect is a good local model, as it provides services to a broad spectrum of the community, allows smaller companies to sell packaged services using that infrastructure and is designed in such a manner to enable its use by emergency responders.
From my perspective, El Dorado County needs to approach widespread internet and/or wireless access from much the same perspective as the City of Sacramento.
Hello,
Carol Anne Ogdin pointed me to this post in your blog.
We're part of a small group in town trying to get the ear of the newly hired County Economic Development Director about the importance of broadband penetration in the underserved areas.
Given history like this post from 8(!) years ago, probably a quixotic effort.
I've been fond of comparing the potential economic and productivity benefits of broadband to that of rural electrification. What I overlooked is that at the time of rural electrification there were no incumbents to frustrate the rollout of such an obvious benefit.
I'm glad to see that you've kept posting up to the present time.
There is plenty to catch up on.
In my day job I work for the Governor's Office of Emergency Services doing public safety communications coordination.
Best Regards,
George Lowry
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