Citizens comment on need for faster internet service

The future of broadband speeds in Fort Scott and surrounding areas was the focus of a Friday meeting at Fort Scott Community College.

Numerous local city and county officials, local and area business owners, representatives of internet service providers and lawmakers, were among those in attendance for a Broadband Speed Improvement meeting which took place in the Danny and Willa Ellis Family Fine Arts Center on the FSCC campus.

Discussion revolved around potential challenges and barriers related to achieving broadband speeds in rural communities.

Following an introduction on the purpose of the session by representatives of Project 17, Lenexa city councilman Andy Huckaba and Heather Morgan, Project 17 executive director, the floor was opened for discussion of key points, issues and challenges facing attendees from the economic development and business community.

Chris Jones, production manager for the The Fort Scott Tribune and Nevada Daily Mail, said he is primarily concerned not with download speeds, but with upload speeds.

"It's not where we need to be," Jones said.

Fort Scott city officials talked during the meeting about the need for high-speed internet throughout the city being a must for economic growth, lowering barriers and getting faster speeds to more than just the few areas that currently have the capabilities.

Gary Goodnight of Parsons said during the meeting one challenge is "finding what's there and available" and also mentioned cost of fiber optics being a concern.

"Parsons has a fiber network that runs along the highway we didn't know about," he said. "Now we have it."

Carolyn Kennett, director of economic development for the city of Parsons, said she also shares the concern of "what's available and where is it?" and getting more information out to industries and businesses.

Huckaba posed a question to providers in attendance, asking how citizens can find out about faster internet speeds in their area.

Steven Dorf, president of the Kansas Fiber Network, said it "starts with local providers" and "looking for a local provider who wants to tap into a fiber backbone." He said one of the main issues is "how to get it (fiber) to the community."

Local business owner Mike Giordano talked about costs related to tapping into a fiber optic "trunk" and costs of providing higher internet speeds to businesses and homes.

"If there's good customer service, I'll buy it," he said.

Dan Droessler, broadband operations manager with Craw-Kan Telephone, Inc., in Girard, talked about the company's operations.

"We deliver fiber to homes; it doesn't go to a large customer base," he said, adding providers can work with local governments about how to distribute faster speeds throughout towns.

Pat Flanagan, COO of Niece Products, a local company in the Fort Scott Industrial Park, spoke during the meeting through online video conferencing. He said "higher speeds are critical when trying to run a business." Flanagan said he has worked with a provider to move the company's connection to a different tower, "but it's up and down."

"We want to compete economically with the 'haves,'" meaning those entities that currently have higher speeds, he said.

Local resident Casey Russell spoke during the meeting "as a concerned citizen."

"The idea is for providers to make an investment in Fort Scott," he said, adding the two largest local providers have made improvements as far as increases in connection speeds in residential areas.

"Where we stand today, it's hard for towns to draw businesses," he said, adding cities have to stand out in their offerings compared to surrounding towns and not be similar.

"Google Fiber raised the visibility of the Kansas City area," Russell said. "You have to be remarkable or different."

Russell said the first step involves finding out what the barriers are to offering higher speeds, "then we can start laying down a plan" involving costs and other factors.

Huckaba said 92 percent of the cost of laying fiber optic cables is digging and underground rock is "driving the cost of fiber up."