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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Ely survey finds dire need for better Internet

Keith Vandervort
Posted 12/14/17

ELY – The Ely Area Broadband Coalition continues to work toward connecting the Ely area to high-speed Internet service for both the business community and residents.

Consultants Design Nine, of …

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Ely survey finds dire need for better Internet

Posted

ELY – The Ely Area Broadband Coalition continues to work toward connecting the Ely area to high-speed Internet service for both the business community and residents.

Consultants Design Nine, of Blacksburg, Va., recently completed a survey in the Ely area to find out how satisfied businesses and residents were with the existing Internet service and what is needed in the community to fulfill communication technology needs in the future.

Andrew Cohill of Design Nine presented a draft summary to the Ely City Council earlier this month.

“We had a very large response to our questions,” Cohill said. “There were 349 responses to our residential survey. That is a very substantial number for a community of this size.” In addition, 62 local businesses responded to the survey.

The answers to the survey, however, were not very surprising, given the state of Internet service in the Ely area.

“As many as 94 percent of the residential respondents feel like they want better Internet,” Cohill said. “Of those users, 44 percent are using DSL, 27 percent are using cable and seven percent are using satellite.”

Twenty-three percent of respondents identified themselves as being “self employed” according to Cohill. “There are people trying to work from home full or part time,” he said. “Another 23 percent are working for a company but are trying to work out of their home for a part of the time.”

Nearly half of the respondents are trying to use the Internet to work from home. “This is something we have seen as a growing trend. Broadband access is not just trying to get better connectivity to retail businesses in Ely but to residential areas as well so people have a wider variety of job opportunities,” Cohill said.

As many as 39 percent of the respondents indicated that the availability of “good” Internet is determining where they decide to live. “This is one of the big impacts we are seeing in rural areas all over the country,” he noted. An adequate Internet connection or the lack of it is starting to change land use and this is affecting the tax base. We hear lots of complaints from real estate agents who are telling us they are having much more difficulty selling homes that don’t have broadband.”

“In the draft report, we had many responses that were interesting and illuminating and show the passion in this community for getting better broadband access,” he said.

On the business side, results were similar. “As many as 98 percent of businesses that responded said they wanted better Internet, and 100 percent of those respondents said Internet is critical to their business in the next five years,” Cohill said.

In his first visit to Ely, Cohill said he was surprised to see so many retail businesses in the downtown area have their web addresses right on their signs. “I think, particularly in the tourism and recreation business, there are a lot of people that use the web to learn more about the area,” he said. “It was interesting to see so many businesses actively promoting their place.”

One in four business respondents said the band-width speed they need is not available, according to Cohill, and 38 percent said they need to work regularly from home. “That is very close to the residential response of nearly half of the respondents trying to work from home,” he added.

Design Nine is preparing cost estimates for supplying high-speed fiber to the downtown area and some of the nearby residential neighborhoods. “We are also looking at some wireless solutions and fiber solutions for areas around the (Burntside) lake. It won’t be a single-type technology. It will be mixed solutions of fiber and wireless technology,” Cohill said.

He said the final report, available early next year, will also provide ownership and governance solutions.

Other business

In other business at the Dec. 5 meeting, the council took the following action:

•Approved a recommendation from the Parks and Recreation Board to request a revision to the Hidden Valley lease with the Department of Natural Resources to allow six miles of bike trails.

•Approved the purchase of a handheld camera for $956 and a laptop computer for $439 from Custom Theaters Inc. to run the audio system from the back of the council chambers.

•Commended the Ely Public Library for their four-star American Star Library ranking, up from a three-star rating in the last six out of 10 years.

•OK’d the city of Ely budget for the Fiscal Year 2018 and adopted the Final Levy Collectible in 2018.

•Approved all Tobacco License renewal applications for 2018 pending the receipt of all required documentation.

•Approved a resolution supporting the maintenance of local license bureaus.